The Toronto Maple Leafs had Andrei Vasilevskiy‘s number on Monday night.
After just 14 shots, the Maple Leafs had put four pucks behind the Tampa Bay Lightning netminder in less than a period and a half. That prompted Lightning coach Jon Cooper to pull Vasilevskiy in favour of backup Jonas Johansson.
Three of Toronto’s four goals came in the second period, as Auston Matthews scored his third of the year on a powerplay, William Nylander fired a shot through Vasilevskiy’s five-hole for his second marker of the night and Max Pacioretty floated a puck from the blueline that somehow found the top corner.
Entering Monday’s contest, Vasilevskiy owned a 3-1 record with a .901 save percentage and a 2.52 goals-against average.
The former Vezina Trophy winner has pulled early just 12 times in 471 starts since his debut in 2014-15 before the Maple Leafs chased him Monday.
Bringing in Johansson didn’t slow Toronto’s attack as Matthew Knies scored on a breakaway at the 14:02 mark of the period, which was only the second shot Tampa Bay’s replacement had faced.
