Yes, last night’s game had the feel of a heavyweight fight, with punches and counter punches exchanged between the VGK and Fleury’s old team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. There were multiple lead changes, a comeback for the Penguins after they were nearly TKO/counted out at the buzzer that ended the first period trailing 3-1, even a disallowed goal for the other team for a change. To top it all off was a hat trick by Jonathan Marchessault, who broke out of his scoring slump in a big way by scoring 3 of Vegas’ last 4 goals and sending the Penguins into their off week with a 7-3 drubbing.
The Penguins were patched up and sent back on to the ice inspired and ready to continue the fight at the start of the second period. They wasted no time in reestablishing their willingness to make this a slugfest for the next 40 minutes. Just 16 seconds into the second, Pittsburgh’s Dominik Simon scored his seventh goal of the season that cut the VGK’s 2-goal lead down to 1.
Then, just 5:40 after Simon’s goal, Sidney Crosby did something he has never done before: score a goal against the VGK and his good friend Marc-André Fleury. Granted, he’d played only 3 games against Vegas over the course of the 2 seasons, but prior to last night, he had no goals and 3 assists in these games. Crosby had a game-high 6 shots on net and even had a partial breakaway that Fleury stopped. This was a case of both men wanting a completely different outcome. Fleury didn’t want Crosby to score a second goal in the game and Sid wanted nothing more than to score a goal to once again inspire his team into a second comeback. Fleury made the save on Crosby and actually made some key saves that would have changed the entire complexion of this game.
Even though Alex Tuch only registered a secondary assist on Max Pacioretty’s 13th goal of the season, he played a huge part in this goal that Max buried into a wide-open net after Tuch powered his way through, around, and over any Penguin who got in his way. Tuch sent it over to Stastny, who found Pacioretty, who had a wide-open net, considering the over-commitment that the Penguin defense and Casey DeSmith afforded the swift-skating Tuch. Tuch even had 2 clean breakaways as he just seems to explode off of his skates and leaves opposing players frozen in time.
Colin Miller, who missed the last 13 games with an undisclosed injury, seemed to fit in smoothly with the speed of the game along with his timing. I asked him post-game about this and he indicated that the first period was a little tough on getting up to speed.
The VGK’s power play has been dreadful and it’s no surprise, considering Miller’s extended absence from the lineup. In the 13 games he missed, the VGK scored a meager 3 PPGs. Colin Miller has 9 power-play points, double that of any other VGK defenseman. His return to the lineup did produce a power-play goal for Vegas in 2 attempts, even though he wasn’t on the ice when they scored. Miller’s slap shot from the point at the 16:16 mark of the 2nd period was tipped past Casey DeSmith by William Karlsson, who hadn’t scored since Dec 29 vs. the L.A. Kings. Karlsson also assisted on Marchessault’s 2nd goal, his first assist since Dec. 22 vs. Montreal. Miller wound up with 2 assists in his first game back.
The top line of Marchessault, Karlsson, and the injured Smith had been in a scoring slump, but both Marchy and Wild Bill put that issue to rest in a big way, especially for Marchy with his hat trick. Karlsson should have received an assist on Marchessault’s first goal, but it was recorded as unassisted. Karlsson’s speed caused DeSmith to have to leave his net to beat Karlsson to the puck, thus leaving him out of the net and out of position, which allowed Marchy to score his first, which regained the lead for Vegas at 4-3. That turned out to be the game-winning goal.
Marchessault’s hat trick was his first as a VGK and just the second in his career. His previous hat trick was on March 25, 2017, as a Florida Panther against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Brandon Pirri’s six-game point streak was snapped last night.
Vegas has 9 wins in the last 11 games and combined with last night’s win and San Jose’s loss to Tampa Bay, it leaves Vegas just one point behind San Jose (63-62) with the same amount of games played (50). Calgary continues to lead the Pacific Division with 69 points in its own 50 games played.
One might look at the final score and think that the goaltending wasn’t strong last night. Nothing could be further from the truth, as Fleury had another outstanding performance and made some world-class saves to keep Pittsburgh from taking control of the game in the second period.
After the Crosby goal that tied the game at 3-3, the only puck that got by him was one that was kicked in by Evgeni Malkin. The goal was reviewed by the War Room in Toronto, like all goals are, and the VGK who don’t seem to get too many favorable War Room rulings got this one. That goal could have changed the direction and momentum of the game.
A short time after Malkin’s disallowed goal, Fleury made another world-class save, Vegas went down the ice, and Marchessault scored his first of 3 — prompting all 3 judges to score the heavyweight fight a standing TKO in favor of the VGK. Or in football terms, Vegas won by scoring a touchdown and only surrendering a field goal.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Jonathan Marchessault (3 goals, including the game winner), William Karlsson (1 goal and 1 assist, which really should be 2), Alex Tuch (who continues to get stronger and faster, leaving oppositions players flatfooted; his new contract is already a bargain).
The next game is tomorrow against the Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile at 3 p.m. (in observance of Martin Luther King Day).
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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.
Here are the links to the videos from post-game interviews:
Jonathan Marchessalt Part I and Part 2
Coach Gallant Part 1 and Part 2
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