Vegas cruises to 8th straight win over Ottawa

The Vegas Golden Knights found their way to victory for the eighth time in as many meetings against the Ottawa Senators as the team won,4-1, Wednesday, Nov. 23.

“One of the things we’ve done well is find ways to win,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “[The players] raise their game when need be.”

With the win, Vegas improves to 16-4-1 with 33 points on the year.

The Knights were third in the league for points coming into this game, but a New Jersey loss to Toronto now moves Vegas to second. The loss for New Jersey snapped a 13-game winning streak.

Now, the team sits a point behind the Boston Bruins.

Vegas currently holds an eight-point lead in the Pacific Division as they head into Thanksgiving.

Wednesday’s game was defenseman Alex Pietrangelo’s 900th career game and 142nd game as a member of the Golden Knights.

Pietrangelo assisted on a goal to center William Karlsson to give Pietrangelo his 21st point in the first 21 games of the season.

It was also a masterful performance from VGK goalie Logan Thompson Wednesday as he recorded 38 saves on 39 shots faced for a final save percentage of .974.

“I don’t think I’ve been great as of late, so this was a big game for me,” Thompson said. “I thought I made the saves that I needed to and gave the guys a chance to win.”

The Vegas Golden Knights will continue their homestand as they get set to welcome in the Seattle Kraken for a Black Friday showdown at the Fortress.

Puck drop is set for 5 p.m. and can be seen on AT&T Sportsnet in Las Vegas.

The first period was all Vegas for the first 19:42 of the 20-minute period and Captain Mark Stone even found the scoreboard to put Vegas up one with less than three minutes to play in the period.

Center Jack Eichel assisted on this goal which pushed his point streak to five games. Eichel finished his night with two points, one of which was an empty net goal to secure the 4-1 win.

Eichel now has 26 points in 21 games (11 goals, 15 assists).

This goal marked the fourth game in a row that Stone has had a goal in. This ties the longest streak of his career and it is his first four-game goal streak in five years.

That all changed with 18 seconds to play in the opening frame when Ottawa’s Jake Sanderson scored his first career goal off an Ottawa power play to tie the game at one apiece going into the second period.

The Williams pair found the back of the net for the Golden Knights on the next two goals as left-wing William Carrier scored the lone goal in the second and Karlsson scored in the first three minutes of the third period to extend the Vegas lead out to 3-1.

“We’ve been known to try to carry momentum and try to get it back,” Carrier said. “Before it was through hits and all that, now we’re trying to get the big goals just to get the team going again.”

Carrier’s goal was the eventual go-ahead goal for the Golden Knights in this one.

“He’s a special player,” Cassidy said. “That was nice. You see that every once and awhile but usually not from that far out so good for him. He’s been making plays lately.

He hasn’t scored in a while but he’s made some great plays to [right-wing Reilly] Smith and has looked for [center Jonathan] Marchessault, so good for him that he got rewarded for his hard work.”