The Vegas Golden Knights (35-26-16) extended their winning streak to three games with a 5-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers (39-29-9) Saturday night at Rogers Place.<\/p>\n
For a change, the Golden Knights jumped out to a 3-0 lead instead of falling into a multi-goal hole, scoring once in the first period and twice in the second and third. Colton Sissons scored the game-winning goal 5:44 into the middle frame, and Jeremy Lauzon recorded his first goal as a Golden Knight in the win.<\/p>\n
Carter Hart was excellent in his second straight win, turning aside 31 of 32 shots for a .969 save percentage. <\/p>\n
Despite the loss, the Oilers moved into first place in the Pacific Division due to the Ducks\u2019 recent slump. Vegas remains in third place but is just one point behind both Edmonton and Anaheim. All three teams have played 77 games.<\/p>\n
Brett Howden opened the scoring 11:43 into the contest with his 11th goal of the year. It was the only goal scored in the opening 20 minutes, and it marked the first time since March 14 that the Golden Knights led after the first period.<\/p>\n
The Golden Knights added two more goals in the second, with Sissons lighting the lamp just under six minutes in.<\/p>\n
Lauzon followed suit with his first of the season just 2:21 later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were fired up,\u201d Sissons said about the team\u2019s reaction to Lauzon finally breaking through. \u201cHe\u2019s been so good for us all year and just plays the game so hard and does so many little things for us. When guys like that get one, you\u2019re pretty juiced.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the final minute of the period, the Golden Knights were unable to get the puck out of the zone, and Edmonton made them pay.<\/p>\n
Evan Bouchard ripped one from the slot after being given too much time and space. The Edmonton rearguard\u2019s 21st of the season cut Vegas\u2019 lead to two goals going into the third period.<\/p>\n
Edmonton got an early power play less than two minutes in and had a glorious opportunity to make it a one-goal game. However, the Vegas penalty kill came through with a critical effort to maintain the two-goal advantage.<\/p>\n
On the next shift, Vegas completed the momentum swing courtesy of the captain, whose 24th of the season made it 4-1 just 4:04 into the third period.<\/p>\n
The deflection goal was assisted by Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel, both of whom finished the game with multi-point efforts (as did Howden and Lauzon, who each scored a goal and an assist). The secondary assist was Eichel\u2019s third point of the game and 82nd point of the year, marking the third time in his career that he has scored at a point-per-game pace.<\/p>\n
Rasmus Andersson continued his hot streak when he potted his 16th of the year on the man-advantage with 3:47 remaining in the third period. His stare-down with the crowd capped off a memorable goal and helped Vegas seal the 5-1 win.<\/p>\n
The Golden Knights have recorded at least a point in five straight games and are 3-0-0 under bench boss John Tortorella.<\/p>\n
For the first time in weeks, Vegas led after the first period. Notably, the Golden Knights cleaned up their sloppy play that led to countless odd-man rushes Thursday against Calgary. That was of paramount importance in this matchup, even if the Oilers were without the services of Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you score a goal and you get a lead, the players just feel more confident,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cThey have a little bit more swagger in their game. And then we scored a couple others. I liked a lot of the little things we did. We were just trying to play north, trying to gain zones. You play 140 feet against [the Oilers], you turn pucks over against that team, you\u2019re in trouble. That was one of our biggest concentrations; I thought we did a pretty good job with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Golden Knights delivered one of the best games they\u2019ve played in a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we were relentless on the forecheck, we were good down low, we put a lot of pressure on those D, and it paid off,\u201d Lauzon said.<\/p>\n
Tortorella was pleased with the progress the Golden Knights have demonstrated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re consistently trying to play fast, certainly playing north,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had a lot of good minutes tonight. \u2026 Some hiccups here and there, but I thought we stayed within ourselves and kept on playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sissons said the Golden Knights rose to the occasion against a difficult opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew the level of urgency that we needed to come out and play a tough game on the road. Tough place to play against a rival. I think everybody showed up, and I\u2019m proud of the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tortorella also recognized that this matchup was different, even if he hasn\u2019t witnessed the rivalry firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been here, and I haven\u2019t been involved in the rivalry, but there\u2019s a little bit more juice coming into this game,\u201d he said. \u201c[Edmonton] is a really good team; they\u2019ve been playing really well. We knew we had our hands full. We didn\u2019t really talk too much about [the Oilers], we just talked about how quick and how much more concentrated we need to be when you\u2019re playing against a better team. \u2026 One of the biggest points is we wanted to play at our pace, not wait to see what the pace was gonna be of the game. We wanted to try to set the tempo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Golden Knights did just that, and there were plenty of factors that contributed to their success.<\/p>\n
The penalty kill was excellent, going 2-for-2 in the first period and coming up with a very timely kill early in the third. That could have been a turning point for the Oilers; instead, the Golden Knights used it to take complete control of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the big play of the game, where we kill that penalty off and then go score the goal,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cBut the first two [kills] in the first period, [Hart] was good there, too. He made some saves. \u2026 The penalty kills were good; our goaltender was our best penalty killer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hart was another integral component, turning aside all 10 shots he faced in the first period and going 14-for-14 in the third. He was a difference-maker, and Tortorella noticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just looks solid,\u201d Tortorella said of his goaltender, whom he coached for two years when the two were in Philadephia. \u201cI know nothing about goaltending, but you can tell when a goaltender feels big. He looked big to me. He just looked solid, and he made some key saves at key times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several players discussed Hart\u2019s performance, including Lauzon.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goalie made some key saves all night, and he\u2019s a big part of why we\u2019re leaving here with two points.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scoresheet featured some of the Golden Knights\u2019 top players, particularly Eichel and Stone, who weren\u2019t contributing consistently during Vegas\u2019 recent rough stretch. The Golden Knights will need both players to be at their best if Vegas wants to clinch a playoff spot and continue to improve moving forward.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Golden Knights got offense from up and down the lineup. Depth scoring is essential, particularly at this time of year. Getting goals from Howden, Sissons and Lauzon was huge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some goals scored throughout the lineup, it\u2019s not just the top guys,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cThat\u2019s a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andersson continues to light it up. In recent games, the Swedish defenseman has been much more active offensively, and he has the numbers to back it up. In fact, he has four goals and six points in his last six games.<\/p>\n
He helped the Golden Knights score four-plus goals for the third straight game. Vegas has not lost in regulation when scoring four or more goals this season, and that streak lives on in the Tortorella era.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear the Golden Knights are playing with more confidence, and it couldn\u2019t be coming at a better time for Vegas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to get a little bit of our swagger back,\u201d Stone said. \u201cI thought we lost a little bit of our emotion. When we played in games like this, we had it, but I found sometimes in just a normal Tuesday night against a non-rival team, we didn\u2019t have that juice, and we\u2019re trying to find it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sissons echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re kind of buying in to the mindset of just playing fast hockey, checking, moving our feet and just playing teams really tight and aggressively and getting up in people\u2019s faces,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re kind of building our confidence back, and our swagger.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there was one relative weakness in Vegas\u2019 game, it was the performance of the top power play unit, which continues to struggle. However, the penalty kill made up for it, and the Golden Knights did more than enough to methodically defeat their biggest rival and come away with an important two points.<\/p>\n
Miraculously, the Golden Knights have turned things around in short order. Tonight was the first true test after playing two non-playoff teams in Vancouver and Calgary. But Vegas will need to continue to string together strong performances and collect points with just five games remaining. Making the playoffs seems likely at this point, but the Golden Knights actually have a chance to win the division.<\/p>\n
That being said, the most important thing is to continue to play the right way and build on these wins. The Golden Knights will have a chance to extend their winning streak to four when they square off against the Canucks on Tuesday. Vegas will finish up the road trip against Seattle and Colorado later next week before wrapping up the regular season with home games against Winnipeg and Seattle.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of the Golden Knights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vegas Golden Knights (35-26-16) extended their winning streak to three games with a 5-1 victory against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-542251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-vegas","13":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","14":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116352807319048336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542251","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=542251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}