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The Vegas Golden Knights erupted for five goals in the second period en route to a huge blowout victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
The Golden Knights beat the Canadiens, 6-2, Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Bell Centre.
“I thought it was a lot of good things, it wasn’t just luck,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Once you get a lead like that, then you should be able to finish the job, and we did.”
With the win, Vegas improved their record to 13-6-2 and still sit one point ahead of the Calgary Flames for first place in the Pacific Division.
“This team is great,” forward Callahan Burke said. “This is a tough building to play in, it’s loud, there’s a lot of people, but we came out well and we were strong all the way through. It feels great to walk out of here with a win.”
This was the first of two meetings between these two teams. The next time they will play against each other will be on New Year’s Eve at the T-Mobile Arena.
“It’s a great feeling,” forward Keegan Kolesar said. “It’s even better that we were able to close it out. Sometimes you can get a little lackadaisical there and let plays get away from us. We did at the start of the third period, they scored two goals, but we were able to tighten it up and nip it in the bud.”
The Knights are now 5-4-2 on the road and will move on to their fourth game of their five-game road trip. VGK will now travel back to the States to play against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, Nov. 25. Puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. from the Wells Fargo Center.
After numerous games of the offense struggling, it looked like that would be the case again on Saturday as Vegas went scoreless in the first period.
Then the Golden Knights flipped the switch in the second period and couldn’t stop lighting the lamp, including scoring three goals in three minutes.
Center Tomas Hertl got the scoring party started for the Knights when he found the back of the net off assists from defensemen Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore.
Burke scored his first goal ever for Vegas next with some help from forwards Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel.
“It feels good,” Burke said. “It takes a little bit of pressure off, knowing that you can do it and you’ve got a goal, so you’re not always fishing for it.”
Then, the tandem of Barbashev and Eichel connected for another goal just one minute later. The team just needed another minute before finding the back of the net again with a goal from veteran Tanner Pearson, off assists from defenseman Noah Hanifin and forward Cole Schwindt.
Hanifin also played a part in their next goal when he and fellow defenseman Zach Whitecloud assisted on a goal from the aforementioned Kolesar to wrap up their explosive second period.
“There were a lot of special moments out there today,” Kolesar said. “We’re all happy when anyone scores on our team.”
Heading into the second intermission, with the Golden Knights up 5-0 it forced the Canadiens to make a change at goalie.
Despite facing a new goalie, Vegas still managed to squeeze in another goal in the third period for good measure. Once again, Eichel and Barbashev connected on the goal, with Theodore also getting the assist.
“Oh yeah, they were hot,” Kolesar said of Eichel and Barbashev. “I expect that from them, they’re both helluva players.”
By the final buzzer, Eichel made history by becoming the fastest player in franchise history to record 30 points in a season at 21 games. The previous record was held by team captain Mark Stone at 24 games in the 2020-21 season.
Eichel’s three-point performance in Saturday night’s game pushed his season total to 32 points.
As for Stone, he has been out due to injury, but is projected to return for their next game on Monday, according to ESPN. Also projected to return on Monday are teammates Alex Pietrangelo and Victor Olofsson.
“We need it right now, we’re missing a guy like Mark Stone, he’s out of the lineup,” Cassidy said. “Olofsson, no one talks about, but he had goals for us early on. So lately the offense has been harder to come by, but those guys were good tonight.”
Defenseman Ben Hutton is still not projected to come back from his injury until Dec. 12.
After sitting out the previous game to rest, goalie Adin Hill returned between the pipes for VGK and really didn’t have to face too many shots on goal. He finished the game with 15 saves on 17 shots for a .882 save percentage. He improved his record to 9-4-1 on the season.
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