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The Vegas Golden Knights found themselves in another hard-fought contest in their last game before the Christmas break, but prevailed to win their fourth consecutive game.
The Golden Knights defeated the Anaheim Ducks, 3-1, on Monday, Dec. 23, at the T-Mobile Arena.
“We try to prepare every night for the opponent, whoever it happens to be,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I think we’ve hit a good stretch this month and parts of November where we’re playing better hockey.”
With the win, Vegas improved their record to 23-8-3 for 49 points, and they are now 14-3-0 when playing at The Fortress this season. The Knights are now sitting in first place in the Pacific Division with a five-point lead over the second-place Edmonton Oilers.
Monday night’s game was the fourth and final meeting between VGK and their division rival this season, with the Golden Knights having a clean sweep over the Ducks.
Monday’s game was also the third and final game of their three-game homestand.
The 18,009 people in attendance got to witness Cassidy become the winningest coach in franchise history.
“I came here with an intention to help this team win and win a Stanley Cup,” Cassidy said. “We were able to do that the first year and I would like to do it again. You’re going to end up accumulating wins along the way. It’s a nice individual accomplishment.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done here, we’ve all done. We’re going to keep it going, we’re working on the next one.”
Following the brief break, Vegas will hit the road for its next game against another division rival, the San Jose Sharks, on Friday, Dec. 27. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the SAP Center in San Jose.
“I think it’s been a little bit of everybody, it’s been timely scoring,” Cassidy said. “That’s why you end up in first place, because you do get different people contributing.”
After starting the past five games trailing early in the first period, the Knights finally got on the board first in this game.
With just 40 seconds left until the first intermission, left-wing Tanner Pearson scored a shorthanded goal with an assist from right-wing Keegan Kolesar.
Pearson’s game-opening goal was his sixth of the season.
With the game tied in the third period, VGK came up clutch again when center Tomas Hertl found the back of the net with help from center Jack Eichel and defenseman Shea Theodore.
Theodore’s assist on the game-winning goal was his 24th of the season.
“We’ve got a lot of wins, a lot of comebacks,” Hertl said. “We’ve just shown how strong we are as a team. We just have to keep pushing.”
Eichel increased his assists season total to 36 and now leads the team with 45 total points on the season.
“I read that [center Ivan] Barbashev said a little while ago that, ‘When you play with Jack Eichel, you need to be ready to play every freaking night because that’s what he expects of you,’” Cassidy said. “So when your best player is like that, he demands it out of himself, practices like that, I mean you’re in business.”
The Golden Knights put the game out of reach six minutes later when Kolesar lit the lamp off assists from center William Karlsson and Hertl.
“We hold each other accountable,” Kolesar said. “We knew that we had to get this win and not look too far ahead.”
It was another great day at the office for Kolesar, who had a multi-point performance with a goal and an assist. He now has 15 total points on the season.
Karlsson also increased his season total to nine assists.
“We’re playing good hockey, we’re collecting points, so that’s good,” Karlsson said. “Now we’ve got a three-day break, and we’ve got to stay on track.”
Hertl joined Kolesar with a multi-point night himself. His goal and assist puts him at 24 total point on the season.
After sitting out their last game on Saturday, goaltender Adin Hill was back to start at goalie for VGK.
The highlight of the night for Hill was his remarkable save in the second period. Hill found himself out of the net and had to quickly dive and fully reach out to get the save with his glove.
By the final buzzer, Hill finished with 31 saves on 32 shots on goal for a .969 save percentage. He is now 15-5-2 on the season.
On the other side of the ice, things were not as smooth for Anaheim.
Goalie John Gibson got the start between the pipes for the Ducks, but his night ended early after he suffered an injury towards the end of the first period.
Backup Lukas Dostal was then tasked with replacing Gibson and he gave up the Golden Knights’ first goal just two minutes later.
In his 17 and a half minutes on the ice, Gibson saved all 11 of the shots he faced. As for Dostal, he had 19 saves on 22 shots for a .864 save percentage.
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