Vegas Golden Knights Drop First Two Games at T-Mobile Arena
Vegas Golden Knights stumble heading into the preseason finale versus the San Jose Sharks.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. After going a solid 3-1-0 on the road, the script flipped when the team came home. Let’s start with the Golden Knights losing a close one in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings.
Vegas opened up the scoring early in the first period with a blast from Cody Eakin on a slick feed from David Perron. That goal will mark as the first official goal in Vegas Golden Knights history at T-Mobile Arena. And when the puck hit twine, the fans were going crazy. Keep in mind this is a preseason game.
The fun didn’t last too long when the Nic Dowd scored a wonky goal. The puck was in the air, and it deflected off of Dowd’s shinpad at the goal line and past Calvin Pickard. After a lot of scoring opportunities for the Golden Knights in the second period, Kurtis MacDermid took a simple wrist shot from the point and it broke through Pickard. There was way too much traffic in front for Pickard to even see the puck.
In the last moments of the second period, Tomas Hyka beat goaltender Jack Campbell, but he didn’t beat the pipe that was behind the netminder. The offensive pressure applied by the Golden Knights was certainly a good sign all night. And early on in the third, it paid off when William Carrier won a battle in front of the net and stuffed it home to tie the game.
Nothing else was decided in the third period, so the two squads went to overtime. And as soon as the puck dropped for some three on three action, it ended in 12 seconds. Brooks Laich was there on the doorstep after Nate Schmidt turned the puck over behind his net to Alex Iafello who fed Laich for the game-winner.
On Thursday, the Golden Knights took on the Colorado Avalanche at T-Mobile Arena. Not a whole lot of positives in the first period but Marc-Andre Fleury stood tall on a breakaway bid by J.T. Compher. Just a few minutes later, former number one overall pick Nail Yakupov left wide open in the slot and went low glove side on Fleury. And in the closing seconds, Sven Andrighetto came flying down the wing and ripped one past Fleury’s blocker side.
After a very lackluster start, the Golden Knights found their legs in the middle of the game. Vadim Shipachyov did what he does best and set up Colin Miller for a beautiful goal. Very encouraging to see Miller still have that bomb of a shot.
In the third period, another odd-man rush leads to a goal as Mikko Rantanen had no trouble slamming the puck into the gaping net. However, the Golden Knights fought back once again when Shea Theodore took a wrister from the point to get the team back within one with well over eight minutes to go.
But in the end, the Avalanche got the last laugh when Comphers initial shot deflected off Fleury then grazed off of Tyson Josts skate and trickled over the goal line. Vegas couldn’t muster anything else up offensively as they took another loss at T-Mobile Arena.
Next: Did the Vegas Golden Knights make the right call picking Nate Schmidt?
The Vegas Golden Knights meet the Shawks in the preseason finale on Sunday night at 5 PM PT. Lineups and rosters have yet to be released but I would expect most of the opening night roster on hand for this game. Just one more game and then the real action and fun can begin!