The Vegas Golden Knights (18-8-10) put on an absolute clinic in a 7-2 rout against the San Jose Sharks (17-18-3) Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena in the final game before the Christmas break.
After losing three straight, the Golden Knights rebounded with a complete effort to improve to 30-2-5 all-time against San Jose.
The focus heading into the game was finding a way to get off to a better start, particularly after falling into four-goal holes in each of the last two games. Needless to say, the Golden Knights delivered. In fact, Vegas lit the lamp five times in the opening frame, with 13 different players recording a point.
Carter Hart picked up his fourth win with a 21-save effort, but it was a light workload for the 27-year-old thanks to Vegas’ explosive start.
The goals came early and often, with Brett Howden kicking things off just 1:46 into the contest on a pretty give-and-go with Braeden Bowman. The goal came on a 2-on-1, just one of many the Golden Knights would exploit in the first period.
The Golden Knights extended their streak to six straight games with a power-play goal when Mitch Marner’s pass to Pavel Dorofeyev deflected off a Sharks skate and found its way into the net. It was a bit of puck luck, something Vegas was unable to find in the back-to-back in Alberta over the weekend.
Next up was Colton Sissons with his second tally of the season. It was a strong play by the fourth line on another odd-man rush.
The Vegas forecheck went to work later in the frame, capitalizing on a brutal turnover forced by Dorofeyev’s active stick, with Tomas Hertl scoring on a point-blank shot from a few feet outside of the crease. It was Hertl’s 15th goal of the year and second against his former team this season.
Hertl’s goal made it 4-0 and ended the night for goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, who was replaced by Alex Nedeljkovic.
But despite the goalie swap, the result was the same for the Golden Knights. Vegas scored on its only other shot of the frame, as Mark Stone extended the lead to 5-0 at 18:34 on a partial breakaway.
In the end, the Golden Knights outshot the Sharks 17-5 and led 13-0 in high-danger chances in the first period.
Sophomore star Macklin Celebrini got on the board 6:49 into the second period. Celebrini’s 19th of the year was the result of a turnover by Hart behind the net, which Tyler Toffoli intercepted before finding Celebrini in the slot.
But Reilly Smith restored Vegas’ five-goal lead with his fifth goal of the year in the final 70 seconds of a quiet second period that featured nine combined shots between the two teams.
San Jose and Vegas exchanged goals in the third period as well, with Marner scoring his second of the game to complete the touchdown for the home team.
However, the Sharks put up a better fight in the third period, outshooting the Golden Knights 14-4 and leading 29-9 in Corsi and 17-3 in scoring chances with an 83.48 percent expected goal share.
Part of that was due to Vegas sitting on such a substantial lead, though it was San Jose’s best period of the night. However, it only resulted in one goal, as Collin Graf beat Hart on the rebound 2:42 after Marner’s tally.
With a five-goal lead, Hart turned aside the final six shots he faced — with Bowman, Kaedan Korczak and Noah Hanifin blocking another four — to help the Golden Knights close out the win.
The Golden Knights got the strong start they desperately needed, and they rode that five-goal outburst all the way to the finish line.
They demolished the Sharks, and they did so as a group. All four lines accounted for at least one goal, and 13 out of 18 skaters found the scoresheet.
Significantly, the Golden Knights came ready to play, and they didn’t waste any time getting to their game.
It was by far the team’s best first period of the season, and though there was a little luck involved on Marner’s first goal, the Golden Knights earned their chances. The fact that they led 13-0 in high-danger chances (and 15-0 through 40 minutes) supports that.
To be fair, the Sharks put together one of the worst defensive efforts Vegas has seen in some time, as evidenced by the seemingly endless stream of odd-man rushes the Golden Knights were afforded.
But that doesn’t nullify what Vegas was able to do.
Everything was clicking for the Golden Knights, who capitalized on opportunities over and over again in what turned out to be as solid a win as they could have hoped for going into the break.
“We just showed up ready to play,” Sissons said. “Obviously, it’s always tough when you don’t have a great effort heading into the break and you have to sit with it for a couple days and think about it. So we showed up tonight and finished strong.”
Bruce Cassidy was pleased with his team’s effort, particularly in the opening frame.
“I was glad to see our guys focused early on, because sometimes you start looking ahead and you end up chasing the game,” he said. “But it was the opposite for us.”
It wasn’t merely an offensive explosion in the first period, however, as Vegas played well on both sides of the puck.
“We didn’t give up anything,” Cassidy said. “It wasn’t like we were trading chances up and down the ice.”
Everyone chipped in, with the entire fourth line teaming up for a goal and seven players recording two points, including Korczak, Smith and Bowman.
Cassidy said some of the players who found the back of the net were due, and he hopes this performance gives them confidence moving forward.
One of those players was Sissons, who scored the game-winning goal.
“I thought [our line was] playing pretty good hockey,” Sissons said. “We were able to transition pretty quickly and get some breaks off the rush. [Keegan Kolesar] made a great play and found me on an easy one on the backdoor, which hasn’t been coming all too easy this year, so I’ll take it.”
The usual suspects also played their role, with Marner recording his third straight multi-point game and fourth in the last five games. Stone, Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev also finished the game with two points apiece.
“I thought we were really good on the walls,” Marner said. “We were good through our zone. I thought we made good plays on the walls with speed underneath coming, and just from there we had our looks, and we capitalized on them.”
At the end of the day, the Golden Knights played a phenomenal game, but that doesn’t mean it will translate against tougher opponents.
A more realistic litmus test awaits the Golden Knights on the other side of the break, as Vegas is set to host Colorado on Saturday. It’s safe to say that the absences of Jack Eichel, Shea Theodore and William Karlsson will be felt more potently in that matchup.
Regardless, the two points up for grabs against the Sharks were two points the Golden Knights had to collect. The fact that they did so in such convincing fashion can only help.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.
Photo via @GoldenKnights on X