VGK gets back on track with road win versus Ottawa

The Vegas Golden Knights shook off last night’s shutout loss and got their offensive mojo back on the road in their win over the Ottawa Senators.

The Golden Knights beat the Senators, 3-2, on Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Canadian Tire Centre. Earlier this season, head coach Bruce Cassidy got his 100th win with VGK. Thursday was his 400th career win as a head coach in the NHL.

“It feels great,” Cassidy said. “You never know where your number is going to end up, but I’m going to tell you. In this business, I’m just worried about getting win number 401 right now.”

The win improved their record to 12-6-2 and kept them one point ahead of the Calgary Flames for first place in the Pacific Division.

Thursday night was their second and final meeting of the season. Vegas beat Ottawa in their first meeting, 6-4, back on Oct. 25, at the T-Mobile Arena.

It was also the second half of a back-to-back and the second game of a five-game road trip. With the win, their record on the road this season is now 4-4-2. Now the Knights will travel to Montreal for their next game against the Canadiens on Saturday, Nov. 23. Puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Bell Centre.

“We managed to get it to the finish line,” Cassidy said. “That’s a good win for the team. Even though it got a little hectic there, but you got to find ways to win. There [are] no easy wins in this league, so good on the guys.”

After failing to find the back of the net in their last game, VGK wasted no time getting on the board early. Center Jack Eichel lit the lamp in the first period off assists from teammates Ivan Barbashev and Shea Theodore.

“It was a really good start to be honest,” Barbashev said. “It was definitely a better start than in Toronto. I’m proud of the guys coming in on the back-to-back and playing our best.”

Forward Brett Howden helped continue to build their lead in the second period when he scored with help from Barbashev and defenseman Noah Hanifin.

“I just like the fact that on a back-to-back, we didn’t let that get in our heads,” Howden said. “I thought we came out strong, much better than we did in previous games. That was our mentality coming into tonight, being ready to go from the start. I thought we did a good job being ready to go.”

After the Senators cut into the lead earlier in the third period, left-wing Pavel Dorofeyev scored what proved to be the game-winning goal off assists from Hanifin and forward William Karlsson.

“We’re hoping now that come January and February, those are the lessons you learn as a team, you get better in those situations,” Cassidy said. “It is still November, so there’s time to grow from that, and that’s how we’ll look at it.”

Despite getting the win, the Golden Knights continued their struggles with the power play. They have now gone 0-for-6 on power play opportunities in the last three games, including going 0-for-2 in this game.

“We all knew we didn’t play our best and I think we’ve been struggling for a while now,” Barbashev said. “Especially in the first 20 minutes, we haven’t been good enough. We talked about it today, revisited some things, and just went out there and we were better.”

On the defensive end, Vegas was able to kill two of Ottawa’s three power plays to hold them to 33.3%.

“We knew they were going to have a push, obviously they were going to be more up the ice and try to push for a couple goals, so we kind of expected that, “ Howden said. “I thought we did a good job responding once they scored, getting back on track with Pav getting that goal. Even when they scored again, I thought that we did a good job of not sitting back. We were staying on our toes and pushing the pace.”

Goaltender Ilya Samsonov got the start at goalie for Vegas on Thursday to give regular starter Adin Hill rest after being between the pipes the night before.

“[Samsonov] was huge,” Howden said. “He made some big saves, especially towards the end there. They had a few plays where they could’ve put one or two of them in, so big saves from him, it was a big night.”

Samsonov is now 4-2-1 on the season after recording 38 saves for a .950 save percentage.

“[Samsonov] had a tough bounce in the last game he played against Washington, but he was just outstanding today for us,” Barbashev said. “He made a lot of saves against a really skilled team and he obviously kept us in the game too. They had a lot of good looks and he was just really good for us today.”

On the other end of the ice, Ottawa starting goalie Linus Ullmark finished the game with 29 saves for a .906 save percentage.