With Game 2 between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins set to go Monday night in Pittsburgh, the Bolts announced Sunday that Andrei Vasilevskiy will get his first start in net since April 9.
The 21-year-old Vasilevskiy will start in place of the injured Ben Bishop who was taken off with just over seven minutes to play in the first period of Game 1 after an apparent leg injury. Vasilevskiy allowed one goal on 26 shots in just over 47 minutes of play – with the lone goal coming on the powerplay for the Penguins.
Heading into Monday, Bishop expressed his support for his colleague saying that the team has “full confidence in” Vasilevskiy as he makes his second career playoff start.
Vasilevskiy played 24 games this season for Tampa Bay finishing with a record of 11-10-0 while registering a 2.76 goals against average and a .910 save percentage.
So far in his playoff career, he has a 2-1-0 record in six games with an impressive 2.21 goals against average and a .923 save percentage.
While Vasilevskiy will start Game 2, coach Jon Cooper has not ruled Bishop out completely reiterating that the news around his injury certainly is better than they first expected. However, he’ll remain day-to-day as the Lightning look for a 2-0 series lead come Monday.