Even though the VGK were late for the start of this game, they managed to rebound twice to defeat Pacific Division rival Vancouver 4-3 to increase their dominance this season against teams in their division with an impressive 7-1-1 record. In their entire history, the VGK have have practically owned the Pacific Division with a 27-7-4 record overall.
The dominance in their division has salvaged this season so far, vaulting them from seventh to third place, now trailing division-leading Calgary by 1 point. Calgary does have two games in hand. The VGK are tied with San Jose with 29 points. San Jose is technically in second place, because they’ve played one less game than Vegas.
The Knights have now won five games in a row and Marc-Andre Fleury has won his last six starts, allowing just eight goals in the streak. It doesn’t hurt that the team has scored 23 times in these six games, while Fleury has a 1.33 GAA in six games, including two back-to-back shutouts.
Yes, the Knights were on the ice for the 7 p.m. start, but managed only one shot on goal for the first 14 minutes. Even with an early power-play opportunity, that one shot didn’t come on the PP, which was was cut short when Colin Miller took a penalty during the man advantage.
Vancouver grabbed the early lead 1-0 when they took advantage of a mistake by Brayden McNabb. He had the puck on his stick along the boards, with Max Pacioretty in front of him in the neutral zone. McNabb could have easily either pushed the puck up to Paccioretty or chipped it up and off the boards, safely moving it out of the defensive zone. Instead, he tried a cross-ice pass, not a wise choice even if he were to accomplish this.
The pass was picked off by Vancouver’s rookie sensation Elias Pettersson, who was tripped up by Nate Schmidt as he skated in on Fleury. From his knees, he slid an unbelievable behind-the-back pass to Brock Boeser, who hammered home a one-timer to open the scoring.
Boesser was returning to the lineup for just his second game since November 2 when he was injured. He scored two goals, bringing his total to 13 points in 15 games (6 G, 7 A).
Pettersson is one of this year’s favorites to win the Rookie of the Year Calder Trophy, with 13 goals and 9 assists in 22 games. Last season, Boeser was the runner-up for the 2018 Calder, which was won by NY Islanders Mathew Barzar.
With these two young players, Vancouver’s future is bright and last night Boeser almost single-handedly carried Vancouver. His second goal overcame a two-goal VGK lead in the third period at the 8:48 mark that tied the score 3-3.
Thank goodness for Max Pacioretty, who also scored two goals last night and continues his torrid scoring pace, with eight goals and three assists (11 points) in his last seven games. This was his third two-goal game in the past five. In Pacioretty’s first 16 games this season, he had two goals and two assists. This seven-game scoring streak is a career high.
Where are all the non-believers who were looking at Tomas Tatar’s point production with Montreal and thinking GMGM (General Manager George McPhee) had made a bad trade.
Tomas Tatar has 10 goals and 9 assists in 25 games with two power-play goals and one winning goal. Max Pacioretty has 10 goals and five assists with three power-play goals along with four power-play points and one game-winner along with an overtime goal in 23 games.
In addition, the second line of Pacioretty, Tuch, and Eakin is producing at an impressive rate, where last season Tatar was up and down all four lines as Gallant tried to find some chemistry between him and the other 11 forwards that never seemed to happen.
What’s turning into a wonderful problem for Gallant is what he’ll do when Paul Stastny and Erik Haula are well enough to return to the lineup. This could spell trouble for Tomas Nosek or Ryan Carpenter (they’d have to be healthy scratches) and push Oscar Lindberg further down the depth chart.
Pacioretty’s goal in the third period opened the Vegas lead to 3-1. It seemed like that would be enough, as Vegas had a 10-0 record going into the third period with a lead and Vancouver was 1-8-1 when trailing. In addition to their poor record in the third period, Vancouver had surrender the most third-period goals in the NHL (38).
But Alexander Elder’s first goal of the season trimmed the lead to 3-2. That was followed by Brock Boeser’s second of the game less than six minutes later, tying the score at 3-3.
To the rescue came William Karlsson and Reilly Smith. The VGK were shorthanded after giving up a third-period two-goal lead. The line of Karlsson, Smith, and Marchessault had a tough game against Chicago, going a combined minus 8 in an 8-3 win. When your top line is minus 8 in a game where your team scores 8 goals, that’s a really bad night. But Reilly Smith slipped a nifty pass to “Wild Bill,” who just had to tap the puck into a wide open net. It was the fifth shorthanded goal Vegas has scored this season and the fourth shorthanded goal Vancouver has given up. It was also the third game in a row that Karlsson has scored a goal.
Vancouver had gotten off to a fast start this season, but has had a tough time of late. In their first 10 games, they had a record of 6-3-1; in the last 11, they have a record of 1-8-2. They’ve lost 11 of their last 12 games. This is a clear case of two teams going in the opposite direction. Vancouver has gone from first in the division to sixth, while the VGK have gone from seventh to tied for second place with the San Jose Sharks, whom they harpooned 6-0 this past Saturday.
William Carrier had a total of five goals in his entire 41-game career with the Buffalo Sabres. Carrier’s opening goal for the Knights seemed to spark the lackluster team. He now has five goals this season in just 27 games.
With Pacioretty’s two goals, there’s now a three-way tie for the team lead with 10 each by Marchessault, Eakin, and Patches.
Once again, Fleury was outstanding in the first period, like he was against Chicago, keeping Vegas in a game that could have gotten out of control. He made three high-quality saves without his stick in the period.
The VGK are 6-1 since the return of Nate Schmidt. Is it just good timing? Or has Nate’s presence had a positive effect on the entire team? What do you think?
My 3 Stars of the Game: Max Pacioretty (2 goals), William Karlsson (game-winning shorthanded goal), Brock Boesk (2 goals)
The VGK’s next game is tomorrow Dec. 1 vs. Edmonton at 7 p.m.
Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected]
And for the most comprehensive coverage of the Vegas Golden Knights’ historic inaugural season, take a look at our book Vegas Golden Knights—How a First-Year Expansion Team Healed Las Vegas and Shocked the Hockey World.
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