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Vegas Golden Knights: Jonathan Marchessault And William Karlsson Lead The Way VS Arizona

By Richard Cardinale |
GLENDALE, AZ - NOVEMBER 25: Jonathan Marchessault #81 of the Vegas Golden Knights is congratulated by teammate William Karlsson #71 after his empty net goal against the Arizona Coyotes during the third period at Gila River Arena on November 25, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/NHLI via Getty Images)
GLENDALE, AZ - NOVEMBER 25: Jonathan Marchessault #81 of the Vegas Golden Knights is congratulated by teammate William Karlsson #71 after his empty net goal against the Arizona Coyotes during the third period at Gila River Arena on November 25, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/NHLI via Getty Images)

There’s not one player playing better hockey right now than Vegas Golden Knights forwards Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson.

Even when the Vegas Golden Knights didn’t deserve to win,  they got the job done last night in Arizona. Besides a few lapses the Golden Knights took advantage of, they did not play their best hockey. However, when a team is not playing there best but still earning victories, that may be the biggest positive to take out of this whole scenario.

The second period Knights showed up once again scoring three goals during the middle frame against the Coyotes.  The Knights were playing awful up to that point. They were losing one on one battles, turning over the puck and running around in the defensive zone. Erik Haula took a penalty for interfering with Coyotes goaltender Scott Wedgewood that actually shifted the tide in this one.

Oliver Eman Larsson turned the puck over on the power play that sent Tomas Nosek off to the races with Cody Eakin on a two on one. Nosek elected to shoot, and he made no mistake going stick side on Wedgewood scoring his third goal of the season. Ironically, Nosek entered back into the lineup tonight after the injury to David Perron on Friday night.

Nearly thirty seconds later, Jonathan Marchessault won an offensive zone faceoff clean, and William Karlsson was there to snap it past Wedgewood for his 13th goal of the 2017-18 campaign. Karlsson’s quick release is a thing of beauty, and it came into play on this goal Saturday night. Marchessault also deserves a ton of credit for making the play happen.

Just under a minute later following the goal, the Coyotes took a too many men on the ice penalty. Vegas capitalized on the power play chance when Haula scored his seventh of the season on the rebound after a Marchessault offensive zone entry. That goal saw the end of Wedgewood in the crease as he was pulled in favor of Marek Langhamer.

The Coyotes continued their relentless push after the third Vegas goal as they got two third period tallies. But in the end, the Knights had the last laugh as Marchessault salted the game away with an empty-netter. Karlsson added an assist on the Marchessault’s goal giving him multi-point games in the previous five straight.

Another critical factor in this game was goaltender Malcolm Subban. Subban returned from injury in a relief role against the Sharks on Friday night. He improved his record to 4-0-0 on Saturday stopping 24 of 26 shots. He made many timely saves and looked great in his first full game.

Karlsson easily gets my number three star after another multi-point effort. Subban would be my number two star after not looking shaky or rusty at all. He had a few anxious moments in the net, but that’s going to happen due to his style of goaltending. And my number one star with three three-point games in a row is Jonathan Marchessault. He and Karlsson have been on fire at the right time for this hockey club.

Next: Vegas Golden Knights Outlast San Jose Sharks In Overtime.

All in all, it was not an impressive effort by the Vegas Golden Knights. Perhaps playing the second end of a back to back had a lot to do with that but Head Coach Gerard Gallant makes no excuses. Next game is against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night back at T-Mobile Arena. Catch puck drop with Dave Goucher and Shane Hnidy on AT&T Sportsnet at 7 PM PT.

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