Potpourri is a mixture of dried naturally fragrant plant materials, used to provide a gentle natural scent. Last night the VGK had their own version of potpourri at T-Mobile and as the pleasant fragrance filled the air, the Knights filled the Arizona net with different types of goals in their dominating 7-4 win over the Arizona Coyotes.
First, there was a power-play goal by Jonathan Marchessault, the first PPG scored by the VGK in their last 19 attempts.
Then there was a greasy goal scored by William Carrier right in front of the blue paint, an area to which Coach DeBoer has been preaching that his players must go.
Then Keegan Kolesar, who has been snake bitten in the scoring department, stripped Ilya Lyubushkin of the puck as he tried to skate out from behind his net. At first, it appeared that the goal would be disallowed, as Lyubushkin fell when Kolesar reached in with his stick to strip him of the puck. Play continued and Kolesar ripped his shot past Arizona goaltender Adin Hill on his stick side: 3-0 Vegas with just 6:59 played on 13 shots.
At the 8:44 mark, with Vegas short-handed, Reilly Smith who had just one goal in his last 14 games, scored when he and William Karlsson broke in on Adin Hill on a 2-0. They played it perfectly with tape-to-tape passes, Smith-Karlsson-Smith, leaving Hill like a floundering seal flat on his belly. It was the VGK’s 2nd shortie goal this season and Reilly Smith has both.
This was a perfectly played first period that made Arizona look like they didn’t belong on the same ice. Vegas peppered Hill with 22 shots before the first period was over. Vegas had 21 shots to Arizona’s 3 just 14 minutes into the period.
Things got even worse for Arizona when Chandler Stephenson scored a goal 4:10 into the second period for the 5-0 debacle. Arizona finally put one behind Robin Lehner with just 53 seconds left in the 2nd period.
It appeared that Vegas was already looking past this game. They let Arizona get a lot closer than they deserved when Hunt and Keller scored 58 seconds apart early in the 3rd period to make the score 5-3 with plenty of time to go in the game. The pleasant potpourri scent was fading away for the 3,950 who were lucky enough to obtain a ticket for last night’s game.
Reilly Smith, who had been struggling in the scoring department, found himself with another golden opportunity and he didn’t waste it. He scored his 2nd goal of the game that allowed Vegas to regain the 3-goal lead once again. Arizona did score 3 goals in the 3rd period, but they were far from enough, as Max Pacioretty added an empty-net goal with 55 seconds left for the 7-4 final score.
Other notes. Chandler Stephenson’s goal was his first in 13 games going back to March 5th at San Jose. Max Pacioretty’s goal was his first in six games. The VGK did make a few adjustments on their power play, which seem to have made a difference. Pacioretty’s normal spot is in the right-wing faceoff circle; last night he went to the opposite side of the ice and Jonathan Marchessault switched sides with him. Opposing teams have tried to overcompensate toward Max in his normal spot, so this new wrinkle seemed to help by giving some additional time and space for Marchessault. It worked last night as Marchessault’s PPG came from the area that Max always sets up from.
My 3 Stars of the Game
1) Reilly Smith (2G, including one shorthanded)
2) Jonathan Marchessault (1G, a PPG, and 1 A)
3) William Carrier (1G in the blue paint, 4 SOG, and 3 booming hits, one sending an Arizona player to the locker room; he never returned)
Next game is tomorrow again against Arizona at T-Mobile at 1 p.m.
If you want to hear and see more VGK content please check out the podcast I do with Eddie Rivkin on YouTube it’s called Hockey Nights in Vegas. Here is a link to our previous podcast.
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