The 24-year-old goalie did not play when the Lightning defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Thursday. He had been sent to Tampa to be evaluated by doctors.

Vasilevskiy is 9-3-1 with a 2.30 goals-against average and .927 save percentage in 13 games this season. He last played in a 6-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

Louis Domingue made 28 saves against the Penguins. Tampa Bay recalled goalie Edward Pasquale from Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Thursday to back him up.

Domingue, 26, is 4-2-0 with a 3.36 GAA and .890 save percentage in six games this season, and is 38-46-8 in 102 games (88 starts) with a 3.01 GAA and .906 save percentage in five NHL seasons with the Arizona Coyotes and Lightning.

"A guy breaks his foot, he couldn't walk right after, then he puts a little ice [on it] and says he's good to go," Domingue said Thursday about Vasilevskiy. "I always said it would take a lot for this guy not to play, injury-wise. Unfortunately they almost had to take him out and force him not to play. I'm sure he would if he could. So the guy is a horse and it's pretty amazing to see. But it's unfortunate how it happened, but that's something that happened before on our team. We lost some big-time players and guys jumped in. A guy like (defenseman) Slater [Koekkoek], who hasn't played any games, he just goes out and he falls in. So I think everybody's eager to take an extra step or a step forward. When someone goes down, one key to our team is everybody can jump right in."

Video: Andrei Vasilevskiy injury update

Coach Jon Cooper said the Lightning are confident in Domingue.

"The big thing is people always look at the starting goaltender, but who's going to win that group of games that are going to help you get into the (Stanley Cup) Playoffs?" Cooper said. "Every team needs capable backups. We feel we have one. He's been a starter in this league before and he's done nothing but impress ever since he's been here. So we're going to need him now, obviously, and we'll see how it goes."

Vasilevskiy was 44-17-3 with a 2.62 GAA and .920 save percentage last season, when he tied Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets for the most wins in the NHL, tied Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators for the League lead with eight shutouts, and finished third in Vezina Trophy voting behind Rinne and Hellebuyck.

Tampa Bay's first-round pick (No. 19) in the 2012 NHL Draft, Vasilevskiy is 94-52-12 with a 2.58 GAA and .918 save percentage in 168 NHL games (158 starts). He is 15-11 with a 2.68 GAA and .919 save percentage in 29 playoff games (24 starts).

"Everyone else on the team is going to have to step up right now," Lightning center Tyler Johnson said. "We have a lot of confidence in Louis. He's going to be big for us back there. It's going to take everyone. Everyone is going to have to play a little bit better defensively and just do our jobs.

NHL.com correspondent Wes Crosby contributed to this report