Vegas Golden Knights Win First Shootout In Franchise History

It came down to a shootout against the Anaheim Ducks, but the Vegas Golden Knights got the big second point.

When the Vegas Golden Knights played the Anaheim Ducks the first time, they came back after trailing in the third period. And in Tuesday’s game, they had to do the same exact thing, and they did. However, it was quite an adventure leading up to that point but let’s start from the beginning.

Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant went with the same lineup as he did on Sunday against the Coyotes. David Perron practiced in full at the morning and in warmups, but Gallant played it safe and wanted to give him an extra couple of days. Malcolm Subban was back in net for the second straight game, and he totally deserves it with the way he’s been playing.

Vegas had a ton of chances early on including an Alex Tuch shot on a two on one that was robbed by a diving John Gibson. But the Golden Knights jumped out to an early lead late in the first period when “Real Deal” James Neal scored his 13th goal of the season. An Erik Haula shot deflected off of Gibson’s pad and straight to Neal who fluttered a shot over a sprawling Gibson.

Sixteen seconds later the same play happened on the very next Golden Knights goal. Except for this time, it was Oscar Lindberg scoring his sixth goal of the year and his first since Halloween. Deryk Engelland took a simple wrist shot that deflected off of Gibson once again, and Lindberg lifted the puck just over the outstretched goaltender.

Things didn’t go nearly as well in the second period. The Ducks struck for goals three times in the middle frame, and they made it look easy. The Golden Knights just weren’t ready for the push Anaheim was going to give after falling behind by two. No sustained pressure, and it felt like the team was stuck in their own end for the entire period.

A screen on one goal, then a tip-in on the second goal and an absolute blast by Corey Perry on the breakaway put the Knights fans in the dumps. None of these goals were on Subban. Just poor defensive coverage and a penalty doomed the Knights for the time being.

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The Knights finally came back to life in the third period sustaining some pressure in the offensive zone. Vegas had numerous power-play chances in this game, but they couldn’t slide one past Gibson with the man advantage. But with a little over four minutes to go in the third period, the Knights broke through.

Gallant made an effort to switch some of the lines so he put Tuch with Haula and Neal on the top line and the plan eventually paid dividends. Tuch stripped Josh Manson of the puck along the wall and worked it over to Neal who fed Haula for the tying goal. The Pori, Finland native’s ninth of the year couldn’t have come at a better time.

The game went to overtime, and the Knights were aggressive but maybe too aggressive as Tuch took a tripping call. And in the anxious moments during the penalty kill, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Brayden McNabb and Engelland did a fantastic job. Subban made the key stops as well, and he pushed the game to a shootout.

Gibson and Subban traded saves in the shootout through two rounds, but an unlikely hero took center stage for the first goal in the shootout. Tuch deked out Gibson and went forehand then backhand and roofed it blocker side. Ondrej Kase was the Ducks last hope, but Subban stayed perfect in the shootout easily stopping the 22-year-old prospect.

A fired up Subban celebrated a historic moment in Vegas Golden Knights history. The Knights shootout win is the teams first in franchise history. Hopefully, the team keeps providing us with more record-breaking moments.

My third star of the game is Alex Tuch with the big play on the tieing goal and of course the shootout winner that pushed the Knights to a win. My second star would be Malcolm Subban. He stopped 26 of 29 overall and went three for three in the shootout. The number one star is easily Erik Haula. His hustle combined with his two-point performance stood out in this one.

Next: Vegas Golden Knights: Marc-Andre Fleury Update.

All in all, a successful night at T- Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights got the extra point, and now they’ll take their game on the road on a back to back against Nashville and Dallas. We’ll give you further updates on the statuses of Perron and Marc-Andre Fleury as the week rolls along.