A 20-minute NHL hockey period takes between 35 and 40 minutes to play, depending on the number of stoppages. The intermission between periods is 18 minutes. So the drop of the puck for the second period is usually about an hour after the opening faceoff.
Last night, the VGK were playing for the second night in a row after traveling 602.9 miles from Vancouver to Calgary. It’s not that long of a flight, but with the change to Daylight Savings Time, the VGK didn’t start playing like a team on a six-game winning streak, or even close to the best they’ve played all season, for at least the first hour. The slow start and the numerous early turnovers were costly in Calgary’s 6-3 victory.
This was an important game for both teams. Calgary was on a four-game losing streak and had fallen out of first place in the Pacific. The VGK had been embarrassed in their last trip into the Saddledome, losing 7-2 to Calgary back on Nov. 19 with Malcolm Subban in goal.
Actually, the last three games that Vegas has played in Calgary haven’t been pretty. They lost in the last game of the 2017-18 season in Calgary 7-1 with Fleury in goal. He surrendered six goals on 18 shots before being relieved by Subban, who gave up one goal for a final score of 7-1. With last night’s score of 6-3, Vegas has been dominated in Calgary, giving up 20 goals in these three games, while scoring only 6.
It was imperative for Vegas to have a good showing last night, even if they lost the game. You don’t want to give Calgary anything that will make them feel like they have the Golden Knights’ number, especially if they remain ahead of Vegas, which will give them home-ice advantage in the first or second round of the playoffs.
In the last game in Calgary, Subban couldn’t be blamed entirely for the 7-2 loss, as the team in front of him didn’t have a good outing. Last night, the same could be said for the first 20 minutes, as whatever could have gone wrong did.
On the first Calgary goal, Cody Eakin took a puck high in the face, forcing him to skate hunched over toward the bench for a line change. While that was happening, Brandon Pirri had the puck taken away from him in the neutral zone. With Eakin slowly getting off the ice, a horrible line change, and both VGK defensemen along the right boards, it left Andrew Mangiapane with the puck headed in on Subban all alone. Andrew made a nice move and slipped the puck past Subban just 2:40 into the first period.
Calgary’s second goal should not have counted. Travis Hamonic knocked the puck down with a high stick (it’s an infraction when a player intentionally or inadvertently plays the puck with the stick above the height of the shoulders or the cross bar of the goal). The play should have been blown down. It wasn’t. The puck was picked up by Tkachuk and Backlund fired a wrist shot from 70 feet out that should have been stopped by Subban.
Gallant was livid on the bench about the missed call on Hamonic touching the puck with a high stick.
Pirri scored to close the gap to 2-1, but the back-breaking goal was the one scored by Tkachuk with just 1:02 left in the first period to regain the two-goal lead. On this goal, Shea Theodore over-committed toward Michael Frolik who had the puck. On a 2-on-1, the defenseman’s sole job is to prevent the cross-ice pass. You let the goaltender have the man with the puck and you create enough space between both attacking players to limit the ability to make that pass. Shea was much too close to Frolik, which allowed a lot of open ice for Tkachuk, who had no problem putting it into a half-open net once the pass wasn’t hampered or blocked by Theodore. Here’s the link to the video of that goal.
Vegas kicked it into a new gear quickly in the second period — 21 seconds to be exact, when Reilly Smith scored to close the score to 3-2, wiping out a 3-1 Calgary lead.
Mark Stone tied the score at 3-3 with his 30th goal of the season and his second as a VGK in back-to-back games. This is the first time in his seven-year career that he has scored 30 goals, though in his first two years, he played only 23 games total. In the 2012-13 season, Stone played in just four games and didn’t register a point. In his second year, he played in 19 games and had four goals and four assists.
With the score tied 3-3, another goaltender-interference call was up for review by the War Room. It appears that Subban’s catching glove was touched, but he was out of the blue-paint area and seemed to be the one who initiated the contact. The rulings from Toronto are always unpredictable, so perhaps Vegas would be on the right side of the last two goalie-interference challenges (the one against Calgary at T-Mobile was ruled in favor of Vegas). Alas, it wasn’t to be: This one was ruled no interference and the goal stood for a Calgary 4-3 lead with just 22 seconds left in the second period.
Subban was livid and as the horn ended the period, he chased down the official and was in his face about the call, which was made by Toronto and not the on-ice official. Subban was issued a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct in a crucial game that Vegas was trailing by one goal. An undisciplined move by the VGK backup goaltender.
Vegas never recovered from the fourth goal and surrendered two more in the third period for the final score of 6-3. Tkachuk, who had caused havoc at T-Mobile with Fleury and his propensity to remain in Fleury’s blue paint, contributed with three goals and one assist for a four-point night. It was Matty boy’s first-ever hat trick.
The line of Tkachuk, Backlund, and Frolik had an amazing night, with five goals and six assists for 11 points. Vegas didn’t have a player with more than one point.
In the six games Tkachuk has played against Vegas in their two years, he’s scored seven goals along with four assists and has three power-play points. He’ll be a major factor if these two teams meet in the playoffs.
With Reilly Smith’s second-period goal, he’s now scored 10 points in his last nine games, along with a four-game point streak.
Mark Stone has five points in his last five games: two goals and three assists.
My 3 Stars of the Game: The entire line of Tkachuk, Backlund, and Frolik.
Vegas now has a few days off and won’t be back in action until Friday when they travel to Dallas for a game that starts at 5 p.m.
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