Tampa head coach John Cooper praised the game of the Russian goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevsky in the National Hockey League regular season match with Washington (3: 2).
– Nobody wants to be in a situation where you need to recoup. Vasya did everything to prevent this from happening to us, – said Cooper. – He played very well, and we scored immediately after that. So the score became not 2: 0 in favor of “Washington”, but 1: 1. And all thanks to his timely salvation.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette also praised Vasilevsky, who saved 31 shots in this meeting and became the second star of the match.
– Yes, their goalkeeper performed well, – added Laviolette. – I liked our game, we did a lot of good things. It's difficult because in hockey you have to fight with different circumstances, even if you play hard. So we took such a defeat hard.
Tampa became the first team of the season to beat Washington in regulation time without allowing them to score a single point. And this is the first team that did not give the captain of the capital club Alexander Ovechkin to earn a single point.
For Vasilevsky, this was the 300th NHL match in the starting lineup, and the victory was the 195th. Only one goalkeeper in league history has had more wins so far – Ken Dryden (196).
- Tampa beat Washington, Vasilevsky saved 31 shots