Vegas Golden Knights Outlast San Jose Sharks In Overtime

Vegas Golden Knights may have blown a three-goal lead, but they never wavered when the game turned sideways.

When the Vegas Golden Knights took the ice Friday afternoon, the team was looking for its eighth straight home victory. The NHL’s newest franchise got the job done and tied an NHL record for longest home winning streak by a team that’s in its inaugural season. However, the game was an absolute adventure right from the opening faceoff.

Golden Knights Head Coach Gerard Gallant went with the same lineup as he did on Wednesday night. Maxime Lagace took the crease for his 11th straight start and his 12th consecutive appearance. Opposite to him was goaltender Martin Jones for the San Jose Sharks.

The Knights once again jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Shea Theodore sniped one past Jones short side. Brendan Leipsic started the play by getting the puck in deep allowing Cody Eakin to fend off Joe Pavelski and dropping the pass off to Theodore. Incredible work done by the Golden Knights here and they didn’t let up either.

The power play got going right out of the shoot as “Real Deal” James Neal also picked the corner on Jones giving the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead. Leipsic drew the call when the Knights started a fast break two on one chance. Neal buried his 12th of the season and his 250th goal of his career.

The Sharks answered back late in the first as Tomas Hertl cut the Golden Knights lead in half. San Jose’s best line in this game was by far the line of Hertl, Logan Couture, and Joonas Donskoi. Donskoi made a slick feed through Theodore’s legs to Hertl for the finish.

Just about when the second period got underway, the Golden Knights put one in the back of the net. William Karlsson pushed forward on the faceoff and bounced one to Reilly Smith who fed Alex Tuch beautifully that Jones made an excellent save on, but it was Karlsson who scored on the rebound and power play. The Golden Knights hottest player kept it going just six and half minutes later.

On a failed clearing attempt by San Jose, Jonathan Marchessault skated to the point, took a wrist shot that Karlsson tipped by the Sharks backup goaltender Aaron Dell. Karlsson is on a tear right now as he just tied Neal for the team lead in goals. Who would’ve thought Karlsson would become this type of player? He’s making the most of every opportunity that’s being given to him.

Related Story: Vegas Golden Knights Proving The House Always Wins.

However, things started to turn from there. San Jose Sharks superstar Brent Burns finally scored his first goal of the season off an offensive faceoff win by Joe Thornton. From that point on, It was all Sharks in the second period.

Chris Tierney made it 4-3  after Eakin failed to gain control the puck down low. A perfect feed from the point by Justin Braun set up Tierney for the goal with four and a half minutes to go. Eakin was also the goat in this one when he put his team back on the penalty kill late in the second.

The Sharks pressure wouldn’t stop as Mikkel Boedker tied the game on the power play. A Pavelski shot that got blocked in front fooled Lagace a bit, and Boedker got the shot off quickly. Gallant made some key adjustments going into the third period, one of them being replacing Lagace with the returning Malcolm Subban.

The third started off on the wrong foot as Logan Couture flat out beat Subban who was slow going side to side, but Gallant challenged for goaltender interference. After further review, Donskoi made contact with Subban, and the referees decided to change the ruling to no goal. Once the team won the challenge, Vegas flipped the switch and gained control for the most of the third period.

Knights went on a power play with 1:53 left on the game clock as Hertl took a mindless interference penalty. Despite not mustering much of any offense on the man advantage, both teams went to overtime. Overtime has been kind to the Golden Knights this year as the team has gone 3-0 in three on three hockey.

Theodore rushed up the ice once Thornton took a spill at center ice and took advantage of a ton of open ice. Once gaining entry, Marchessault’s shot got blocked, and Neal retrieved it who fed the puck to Theodore. The 22-year-old had two options, A) Take the open look shot or B) Make a tape to tape pass to Marchessault and thankfully he chose option B. Marchessault waited out Dell, finally took his shot, and it deflected in off of Thornton, and the crowd at T-Mobile Arena went insane.

His seventh goal of the season proved to be the difference in this one. Marchessault was on fire the entire game chipping in on three of the five Vegas Golden Knights goals tonight. But let’s face it, there’s no way the Knights should’ve even been in this position.

After laying back in the second period, hopefully the Knights learned their lesson. This team has done this on more than a few occasions, and Gallant has to put an end to it. Luckily the team came out on the winning end this time.

My third star of the game is Shea Theodore chipping in a goal and an assist off the blue line. This game was the most comfortable I’ve ever seen Theodore, and he looks like he’s here to stay once Luca Sbisa comes back from injury. My second star is Jonathan Marchessault, getting the game-winner and two more assists. He was all over the ice right from the word go.

And my number one star is William Karlsson who continues to be the best Golden Knights player in the past two weeks. His two goals add to his crazy pace on the year. It’ll be interesting to see if he could become a 30 goal scorer for the first time in his career.

Next: The Golden Knights Face Off With Ducks In Anaheim.

A great win for this Vegas Golden Knights team but they lost top-six forward David Perron to injury. Perron collided with Timo Meier and didn’t look right heading off the ice. Perron has a history of significant concussions, and It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s out for quite some time. It also wouldn’t shock me one bit if the NHL decides to spend Meier for his hit on Perron.

The Vegas Golden Knights are back at it for another game Saturday afternoon when they take on the Coyotes in Arizona. Catch puck drop with Dave Goucher and Shane Hnidy at 5 PM PT only on AT&T Sportsnet.