.png)
The Vegas Golden Knights added to their now three-game winning streak on Thursday, March 23 as they defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2 in what was the second of this three-game Canada road trip for the team.
Vegas is 10-2-0 in March and have now set franchise records for both road wins in a season (23) and road points in a season (51).
“I liked our game a lot,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought we checked as well as we have and didn't give up any odd man rushes or hardly any grade A’s. I thought it was a good Golden Knights, keep it to the outside, defensive type of game.”
Vegas has won 10 of their last 12 games and have only lost back-to-back games once since returning from the All-star break.
The Golden Knights are now 45-21-6 with 96 points in the Pacific Division. Thursday’s win extended VGK’s lead to four points over the Los Angeles Kings in the division. Vegas also leads the Edmonton Oilers by six points to the third spot in the division with the top three teams in each division receiving an automatic playoff bid at season’s end.
Vegas will wrap up their three-game Canada road trip on Saturday night in the city of Edmonton as they get set to take on the Edmonton Oilers. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and can be seen on AT&T Sportsnet in Las Vegas or on ESPN+ in all other markets.
Saturday’s game will be the first of a back-to-back against the Oilers for Vegas. So far this season, the Knights are 0-2 against Edmonton with a loss in regulation and in overtime. The final matchup of the regular season between these teams is set to take place on Tuesday inside T-Mobile Arena.
One stat that jumps off the stat sheet for the Knights is the fact that they had 32 blocked shots in this one. This mark is one shy of the franchise record and it is the third time in March that the Knights have had 29 or more blocked shots in a game.
As the Golden Knights have done in recent games, the team jumped out to another early lead in this one, getting goals from right-winger Jonathan Marchessault and right-winger Michael Amadio to go up 2-0 with just under five minutes to go in the first period.
Vegas has scored a first period goal in seven of the last eight games. The Knights won the seven games that they scored a first period goal and lost the only game where they did not score a goal in the first period during that span.
Marchessault’s goal was his 23rd of the season and it was also his 50th point of the season, making this the fifth 50-point season he’s had. He is the fourth Golden Knight player to reach the 50-point mark this year.
Assisting on Marchessault’s goal was center Jack Eichel who now owns the team lead for points scored this year with 55 points.
On the topic of assists, defensemen Shea Theodore and Alex Pietrangelo each picked up an assist in the opening period, giving VGK defensemen 21 points over the last seven games.
Calgary did cut the two-goal deficit in half before the opening period ended when left-winger Milan Lucic scored with 58 seconds left in the first to make it a 2-1 game heading into the first intermission.
The second period saw no scoring from either side as both teams had their fair share of chances to light up the lamp but saw no success in doing so during the middle frame.
With the game still 2-1 in favor of the Knights, the game shifted to the third period which saw Vegas get their second two-goal lead of the game off the stick of center Nicolas Roy. He scored with 14:41 to go in regulation and it was his 12th goal of the season.
This was Roy’s first goal and first game since returning from injury.
“I felt really good coming into this game,” Roy said. “Playing with two great players with [right-winger Phil] Kessel and [center Chandler] Stephenson helps a lot too.”
Roy’s goal was also his first goal scored in a game since Feb. 21. He has points in five of the last six games he has played.
Kessel picked up an assist on Roy’s goal which now gives him points in three straight games, tying his longest streak as a member of the Golden Knights.
Comments