When Does 0-57 Become 1-58?

In their entire franchise history, the VGK have entered the 3rd period trailing by 3 goals or more 57 times and their record in these games was 0-for-57.

When 0-57 becomes 1-58 happened yesterday at T-Mobile. Vegs rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win the game 5-4 in overtime in front of an announced crowd of 18,301. The fans were subjected to an uninspiring first 40 minutes from a team that should have been nothing but inspired, as their season and playoff hopes were draining faster than the water levels of Lake Mead.

They trailed the Chicago Blackhawks 3-0 after 40 minutes on goals by Dominik Kubalik in the first period and 2nd period goals by Jonathan Toews and Dylan Strome.

The Chicago Blackhawks occupies 14th place of the 16 teams in the Western Conference; the only teams they’re ahead of are Arizona and 1st year Seattle. The VGK should have put this game away early based on who needs what and who’s going where. But the crowd at T-Mobile was watching in disbelief, as it surely seemed that this game was about to mark the point of no return for the 2021-2022 season.

Then, something happened in the 18 minutes between the 2nd and 3rd periods. Post-game comments suggested that Alec Martinez, who returned to the lineup after missing the last 53 games after suffering a serious facial injury on Nov 11, addressed the team about their pathetic first 40 minutes. I’m sure Pete DeBoer also had some words that might have peeled the paint off of the locker-room walls. The players were mum on exactly who said what, as the NHL locker is and always will be a place about which not much is learned from by anyone outside of the organization.

But once in a while, you can get a coach to give you the Reader’s Digest version of what said. So I asked DeBoer in the post-game press conference if he could share with us exactly what he said to the team. His response was, “I don’t remember. I think I blacked out after we won.”

The comeback started when Chandler Stephenson scored 1:29 into the 3rd period, followed up by William Karlsson’s goal just 59 seconds later. Then Jack Eichel tied the game with his goal at the 3:16 mark. So, Vegas, who couldn’t find the back of the net in the first 40 minutes of a game they desperately needed to win, scored 3 goals in a span of 1:52 to tie the game at 3-3 and T-Mobile was rocking.

But not so fast.

Chicago might have been on their heels with the VGK onslaught, but Alex Debincat beat Logan Thompson on a perfectly placed shot to the short side, putting Chicago back on top 4-3. Would that be the end of the VGK amazing comeback? Not on this day. Just 47 seconds later, Alex Pietrangelo tied the game at 4-4 on his shot from the blue line that found its way behind Kevin Lankinen, who stopped 29 of the 34 VGK shots he faced.

This set the stage for OT and the new VGK fan favorite, the traded and then not traded Evgenii Dadonov to be the hero of the game. Dadonov waited patiently as Nicolas Roy skated circles around the Chicago players like he was auditioning for the Ice Capades. Roy circled around the net, which caused Lankinen to lose his stick while trying to scramble back to the far post. Roy waited for the right time to drop the puck back to Dadonov, who slid right to left and fired a wrist shot over Lankinen’s glove for the dramatic 5-4 OT victory. It was Dadonov’s 5th point (2 goals and 3 assists) in his last 2 games since his trade was nullified; he’s also scored 5 goals and had 3 assists in his last 4 games.

We’ve all marveled at the way this team has been built over their first 5 seasons and how they pretty much have been in the mix to be one of the few teams that has had a projected shot to win the Stanley Cup every season so far. But this roster move of attempting to dump Dadonov for cap space has been a nightmare for the VGK GM McCrimmon, to say the least.

Other game notes and quotes.

You’d think that a goaltender who gave up 4 goals in a game wouldn’t be included in a conversation about how well he played, but that was the case for Logan Thompson, who despite giving up 4 goals, played fantastic and made some key saves in the 3rd period to set the stage for Dadonov heroics.

“I saw [Nicolas Roy] had the puck. He was like holding, holding, holding. I tried to open up,” Dadonov said. “Finally, he passed to me. I moved to the middle and looked for the shot lane.”

Dadonov added, “Like I said last time, it was a stressful couple of days. We should stop talking about it. All I’m thinking about is helping the team make the final push for the playoffs.”

“It’s a good character win. Sometimes, adversity is a good thing. It gets us some energy coming back home. It’s a big win in our building,” Pietrangelo said. “We can build off of that. Those games are fun to win. … Any point right now is big for us.”

“They just dug deep,” Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. “We were running on some fumes tonight. … They recognized the importance of the moment. In the third, our best guys grabbed it and dragged us back into the game.”

In what should not be shocking news as it just seems to happen every game these days, Vegas forward William Carrier left in the second period with a lower-body injury.

My 3 Stars of the game: Whoever spoke up in the locker room between the 2nd and 3rd periods; DeBoer didn’t offer any help after he “blacked out”, Evgenii Dadonov (GWG and 1 assist), Logan Thompson (30 saves on 34 shots)

Next game is Wednesday March 30th vs. Seattle 7 p.m. Pacific Time

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VGK 3 goals in 1:52
Pietrangelo ties it up once again at 4-4
Dadonov’s GWG