In a gutty come-from-behind performance, the VGK spotted the New York Islanders two goals just 1:08 apart late in a first period that was dominated by Vegas for the first 18:30. The second goal came with just 22 seconds left in the period. Giving up a goal late in a period is often crushing to a team’s momentum, but a lot of teams rarely recover from giving up two that late in a period that you were dominating. But this is Vegas, baby! The VGK have been doing things differently since their inception. Last night they scored four unanswered goals, three in the third period, to defeat the Islanders 4-2.
Last night’s win extended their home winning streak to six games and improved their record at T-Mobile to 11-3-1, and 20-15-2 overall. In their last 15 games, they’re 11-3-1 for 23 points out of a possible 30.
This surge of 23 points has them just one point behind both San Jose and Anaheim for second place in the Pacific Division and five points behind division-leading Calgary.
Last night’s game saw a few lineup changes. With Max Pacioretty on the IR list, Brandon Pirri was summoned on an emergency call from the Chicago Wolves to fill in for Patches and boy, did he ever. Pirri has a knack for taking advantage of these “golden” opportunities; last year, he scored three goals in two games for which he was called up at the tail end of the season. Last night, he picked up right where he left off by scoring the VGK’s first goal of the game and his first of the year on the power play 8:48 into the second period. Pirri’s goal started the VGK’s impressive comeback.
Another change in the lineup was Colin Miller missing the game due to an undisclosed injury; Colin had previously played in every regular-season and playoff game since the team’s inception. William Karlsson is now the only VGK to play in every game, all 138.
Pirri started the game in the spot normally occupied by Pacioretty. But Vegas hadn’t scored a goal since Alex Tuch’s game winner in overtime on Sunday to beat the Rangers, and after the first-period 90-second surge by the Islanders, Coach Gallant needed to shake things up. And boy, did he ever. He did something he hasn’t done in 138 games: He broke up the line of Karlsson, Marchessault, and Smith. Smith went to play with Stastny and Pirri, and Tuch was moved up (some might say laterally) to play with Marchy and Wild Bill. Tuch, Marchessault, and Karlsson have 38 goals combined and are the top three goal scorers on the team. Karlsson’s game-tying goal last night was his 14th, which leads the team. Tuch and Marchy each have 12.
“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” Gallant said about the line changes. “We just wanted to change it up a little bit. Fortunately for us, it worked. I liked our game. We fell asleep for a minute and a half late in the first period, it cost us two goals, and you know we’re disappointed with that. But I thought overall, we played a real solid game with lots of scoring opportunities.”
It not only seemed to get the team going, but truth be told, Reilly Smith looked mighty comfortable with Stastny and Pirri. Smith’s relentless pursuit of the puck led to the game-winning goal scored by Stastny just 1:03 after Karlsson’s goal tied the game at 2-2. It was Stastny’s second of the season in his seventh game.
The Islanders’ two goals came off two clean faceoff wins against both Stastny and Karlsson. So their goals seemed like redemptions for the faceoff losses that led to the two-goal deficit. Stastny, noted for his faceoff skills, won 12 of the 17 he took last night, but lost a key one to Fleury’s right with 1:30 left in the first period that resulted in Matt Barzal fifth goal of the season and broke a scoreless first period on just the seventh shot on Fleury. Karlsson won 8 of his 15 faceoffs, but lost one deep in his offensive zone that led to the second goal scored by Brock Nelson, his 12th of the season, with just 22 seconds left.
“Pirri scoring that power-play goal was huge. We were down 2-0 and right after that, we had four or five real good chances. The one that was disallowed was the right call, obviously, with the offside, but we still had good jump and it carried over to the third period.”
Nate Schmidt had a superb game last night, registering three points, including his third goal of the season into the empty net with a 180-foot shot from deep in his end that found the net with just 15 seconds left in the game. Schmidt also had a game-high seven shots on goal and was credited with three takeaways, in which he leads the team, along with 22:25 of ice time, the most among the VGK. His contributions were missed the first 20 games of the season. Without Nate, the VGK were 8-11-1; since his return, they’re 12-4-1.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Brandon Pirri (1 goal, his first and the game-changer), Paul Stastny (1 goal, the GWG), Nate Schmidt (1 goal, 2 assists)
The next game is tomorrow, Saturday, vs. Montreal at 1 p.m. at T-Mobile
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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.
And here are my post-game videos:
Turk Gallant Part I and Part II
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