Wow. What a difference from one game to another. Granted, with all the injuries that Vegas has endured lately, while still trying to keep the chemistry that has been with this team from October, has not be easy.
Last night, even though Tomas Tatar still doesn’t look comfortable with the top line missing an injured Reilly Smith, the entire team seemed like they’d decided that enough was enough. They’d lost 4 of their last 5 games and scored only 11 goals, a big contrast to the 13 goals in the two games prior.
You might think that in a game the Golden Knights won over the Detroit Red Wings, the goalie wasn’t a major factor, but that was not the case. Fleury, who was starting his 15th game of the last 16, made a big difference.
Alex Tuch scored the first goal early, just 2:24 in, his 12th of the season. Cody Eakin added a shorthanded goal, his 8th, at the 10:40 mark of the second period. But this game was far from over.
You know my theory about the next team to score in a 2-0 game will most likely win the game. So with the score 2-0 and 4:40 left in the second, Fleury made three amazing saves in a matter of 10 seconds that would have changed the entire complexion of the game and shifted the momentum back to the Red Wings. That was the turning point of the game a goal there would have given life to a team who really hasn’t had much to feel good about.
“Great goalies make big saves, and that’s what he did tonight,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “He kept us from getting back into the game when it was still 1-0.”
Detroit is far from a playoff team and will most likely miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second year in a row. This comes after they had made the playoffs an amazing 25 consecutive years.
Shortly after Fleury’s saves, Cody Eakin scored his second goal of the game, which made the score 3-0 and sealed the deal for Vegas.
Both Eakin and Tuch, who also added another goal for his second of the game, had gone through a long stretch of games without scoring. Tuch’s goal was his first in his last 14 games and Eakin hadn’t scored in 25 games. With the Knights missing James Neal now for the fifth straight game and Reilly Smith along with defensemen Nate Schmidt and Luca Sbisa missing from the lineup, contributions from the rest of the lineup are paramount. The third-line forwards Eakin and Tuch provided that last night in Detroit.
Coach Gallant commented on it after the game. “Eakin and Tuch stepping up and getting those goals was big for us and big for this hockey team. If we’re going to win games with guys out, we’re going to need goals from our other lines.”
Tonight’s win increases Vegas road record to a solid 19-12-3.
“Our guys take a lot of pride in our road record,” Coach Gerard Gallant said. “Some of our best games this season have come on the road.”
Not appearing anywhere on the score sheet are two amazing plays by William Karlsson, who continues to play every inch of ice. He saved a sure goal when he was back-checking and knocked the puck off Trevor Daley’s stick when Daley had a completely wide open net to shoot at. He also poke-checked the puck away from a Detroit forward while killing a penalty springing Cody Eakin on a rare 2-0 breakaway while Vegas was shorthanded. Karlsson did pick up an assist on Eakin’s shorthand goal, so that play made the score sheet, but a lot of what he does on the defensive side of the puck isn’t always noticed.
Eakin was on the ice for all of the Vegas goals tonight and wound up a +4 for the game.
Entering the third period with a 4-0 lead looked promising for the Knights and not so promising for Detroit to mount a comeback. Vegas is 25-2-2 entering the last period with any lead, while Detroit’s record of coming back in the third while trailing is 1-24-5. The only thing in question was would Marc Andre Fleury maintain the shutout? He did; it was his career 47th, stopping all 28 shots he faced.
With this win, Vegas ties another NHL record: its 19th road victory, which it now shares with the 1993-1994 Anaheim Ducks. Their next road win will break yet another expansion record.
Unfortunately, Vegas still remains behind in the race to be the #1 team in the Western Conference as Nashville has won a franchise record of 10 games in a row.
In a class move by Coach Gallant with Vegas leading 4-0 and just under six minutes left in the game, he sent out the fourth line on a power play. These guys may never have had power play time before tonight, but this is why Gallant is known as a players’ coach.
The VGK’s next game is Saturday at 10 a.m. Pacific time vs. Buffalo, as their five-game road trip continues.
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