.png)
The Vegas Golden Knights rebounded from another road loss to make franchise history in stunning fashion in their return to The Fortress.
VGK defeated the newly rebranded Utah Hockey Club, 4-3, in overtime as part of the first official meeting on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights are now 8-0-0 at home this season and also have tied the record for the longest home undefeated stretch at eight games.
With the win, Vegas improved their overall record to 8-3-1 to reclaim the top spot in the Pacific Division.
“I think this team, in general, for all the years I’ve been here, are very disciplined,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “In general, I think we have a reputation of checking well and keeping our cool. Sometimes that helps around the league. I think that’s been built here for a while.”
Saturday night’s game marked the first of three meetings with Utah this season. All three games are scheduled for November, with the next one coming next Friday in Salt Lake City.
The Knights will now hit the road for the next two games. They will travel across the border to Edmonton to take on the defending Western Conference Champions on Wednesday, Nov. 6, at Rogers Place. Puck drop is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
“At the end of the day, we need our [defense] to beat threats offensively,” Cassidy said. “A total of all four lines are humming in that regard.”
Center Brett Howden continued his great start to the season with the game-winning goal in overtime on Saturday. After the Golden Knights had just missed two shots wide, captain Mark Stone and defenseman Noah Hanifin assisted him, who was then able to switch to his backhand to get around a Utah defender before shooting the puck through the net.
“I think everybody kind of recognized that they have been out there for awhile,” Howden said. “We knew we didn’t want to let them change. [Hanifin] made the play to me and I just tried to take it to the net. Just found a lane and put it in.”
Howden has now recorded two-point games twice in the last four games and has six goals on the season, which is three goals away from tying his career-high of nine.
“We love playing here,” he said. “To us, it’s the best place to play. We feed off the energy every night, doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, this place is always going.”
Vegas got off to a slow start offensively again on Saturday, marking their second consecutive game without scoring a goal in the first period. They also found themselves trailing in the game 0-2 for the third time in the last five games. However, they were able to respond with three unanswered goals to come back and steal the win.
“Obviously, wish we wouldn’t have pushed it to overtime by giving up the late goal,” Howden said. “But it’s nice that we were able to close this game out.”
Left-wing Pavel Dorofeyev got things started for the Knights with his goal that was assisted by Howden and forward Tomas Hertl. Dorofeyev now has seven goals on the season and is tied with teammate Ivan Barbashev for team-high.
With the assist, Hertl recorded his 500th career point in the NHL. He is now the second person in his draft class to reach that milestone.
“I’m really excited about it, it’s a nice milestone,” he said. “There was a lot of grind to get there. I’m really happy about it, but I’m more happy that we won the game.”
Dorofeyev’s goal marked the latest time it took for VGK to get on the board this season with it coming at the 4:54 mark in the second period. They finally scored with just over five minutes left in the second period in their previous game against Los Angeles.
Back to Saturday night, Hanifin found the back of the net for the first time this season with just one second left in the second period to tie the game two. Hanifin’s goal was assisted by center Nicolas Roy and right-wing Keegan Kolesar of the fourth line.
“I thought they were our best line,” Cassidy said. “Some of our top lines just didn’t have the space today and weren’t making the plays they usually do, a little off the execution.”
Hanifin also had a hand in helping the Golden Knights capture their first lead of the game when he assisted on the go-ahead goal by center William Karlsson with 14:23 left in the third period.
Saturday was the first multi-point night of the season for Hanifin and it was his first three-point regular season game since Feb. 24 of last season. Entering Saturday, he had three total points in the 11 games he played in this season.
“That’s the game I’ve been trying to get to for awhile,” he said. “Getting up on the play, using my feet, using my skating ability. When I do that, I try to open up some other things for other players.”
It also took Utah awhile to get their offense started as it didn’t register their first shot on goal until more than 13 and a half minutes into the game. However, when they did take their first shot, it scorched past goalie Adin Hill and reached the back of the net.
Hill didn’t record his first save until the 3:13 mark of the first period. He didn’t see too much action in Saturday’s win, facing just six shots in the second and eight more in the third period.
“We want Adin to find his game,” Cassidy said. “He’s won a Cup for us, so we’re relying on him to be solid every night.”
By the final buzzer, Hill finished the game with 16 saves and a .842 save percentage. On the other side, Utah goalie Connor Ingram finished with 31 saves and save percentage of .886.
Comments