LAS VEGAS \u2014 When you\u2019re struggling, nothing comes easy. Even when it appears it should be.<\/p>\n
The worst team in hockey visited T-Mobile Arena Wednesday night and for most of it, the Vancouver Canucks lived up to their reputation. They may not be the most talented group to take to the ice, but they have a bit of moxie in them.<\/p>\n
Enough so that the Vegas Golden Knights were going to have to do more than just show up if they intended to snap their five-game losing streak and get Bruce Cassidy\u2019s critics off his back for one night.<\/p>\n
And while the Knights didn\u2019t look like Stanley Cup timber, they managed to get the lead, build on it and hold it to the end, which when you come right down to it, is all that matters as we head to the Olympic break in 24 hours.<\/p>\n
So Vegas\u2019 5-2 win kept it in first place in the Pacific Division and if the Knights can turn one win into two Thursday when they host Los Angeles, they can enjoy the break knowing that despite a rash of injuries, they are still at the top of the standings in the division.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to start the third period on our toes and not give them any life,\u201d Cassidy said.<\/p>\n
Jack Eichel scored for the first time in six games. Kai Uchacz got called up from Henderson and made his NHL debut. Cole Reinhardt, who was with Uchazc and Braeden Bowman on what I called the \u201cTown Crier Line\u201d \u2014 all three started out in Henderson with the Silver Knights this season \u2014 scored shortly after Eichel in the second period as part of a four-goals-in-3 1\/2 minutes span that saw Elias Pettersson and Ivan Barbashev trade goals in what was the most action delivered for the majority of the evening.<\/p>\n
It was enough to make Akira Schmid a winner in goal as he heads off to Italy to represent Switzerland in the Olympics next week. He made an incredible second-period save on Pierre-Olivier Joseph midway through the second period, diving to his right and snagging Joseph\u2019s shot with his glove to keep it 3-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig saves get everyone going, the bench gets excited, the guys on the ice,\u201d Cassidy said of Schmid\u2019s stop. \u201cYou need those timely saves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmid said of the save: \u201cYou hope you get a piece of it and that it doesn\u2019t go in. I saw the replay and it wasn\u2019t even close.\u201d
\u00a0
But Joseph got his revenge with 8.8 seconds left in the period, beating Schmid from long range with a 55-footer that somehow eluded him and pulled the Canucks within 3-2 heading into the third. \u00a0<\/p>\n
But another brief offensive flurry that resulted in goals from Pavel Dorofeyev (his team-leading 25th) and Alexander Holtz in a 60-second span sealed a much-needed win for a Vegas team that has spent a lot of its losing streak chasing the game and expending a lot of energy looking to get back in it.<\/p>\n
Such wasn\u2019t the case Wednesday. The Knights played from in front from the second period on and were clearly the better team once they got their game in gear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think by any means it was our best game, but it was good to come out in the third and get a few and win the game,\u201d Eichel said.<\/p>\n
For Uchacz, his family was in the arena to witness his debut and like virtually every player run that situation, it\u2019s a moment he\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think after the first shift, it felt like a regular game,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving played with Bo (Bowman) and Rein (Reinhardt) definitely helped me relax. Those guys are hard workers so I was able to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassidy had no problems with the rookie\u2019s debut. Or the entire line for that matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cKai played well and good for him,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought he did a good job. He tried to be physical. He competed hard in the circle. \u00a0He\u2019s done good work down in Henderson and it\u2019s nice to see the organization reward guys who are playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 When you\u2019re struggling, nothing comes easy. Even when it appears it should be. The worst…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[2831,762,149,5317,5,1041,33229,40,4,4972,74,39,5316],"class_list":["post-446655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vegas-golden-knights","tag-akira-schmid","tag-bruce-cassidy","tag-golden-knights","tag-goldenknights","tag-hockey","tag-jack-eichel","tag-kai-uchacz","tag-news","tag-nhl","tag-tst-las-vegas","tag-vegas","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-vegasgoldenknights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116017008730865717","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}