Vegas Golden Knights Sweep Season Series Against Tampa Bay Lightning

When the Nashville Predators defeated the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, the team didn’t get down on themselves. It was one of the most frustrating games all season long for the expansion club. But this Golden Knights team is known for coming back with a strong effort in the next game.

However, they faced the NHL’s top team once again in the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Golden Knights barely edged out the Lightning at T-Mobile Arena on December 6th by a score of 4-3. The first star of the game was Shea Theodore who factored in all four of the Knights goals and scored with 2.3 seconds left.

The Knights made a change inserting Cody Eakin back in the lineup for an injured Tomas Nosek. It’s unknown when Nosek will be able to come back to play to regular on-ice activity. Two All-Star goaltenders play against each other with Marc-Andre Fleury starting for Vegas while Andrei Vasilevskiy earned the call for Tampa.

The Vegas Golden Knights got off to a hot start just 56 seconds into the game. James Neal tipped a perfect shot from Deryk Engelland to earn his 19th goal of the season. Just the right start Vegas was looking for to start this one, and they weren’t done yet.

The Knights continued their offensive barrage late in the period when Nate Schmidt scored on a slapshot from the point. Erik Haula and Brayden McNabb played catch then McNabb fed Schmidt for the slapper on his third goal of the year. The Golden Knights ended the first period up 2-0.

Fleury made a few key stops in the period, and he kept the Lightning off the board.  The Flower made 12 saves on 12 shots in the opening period. But the Lightning started to gain some traction in the middle frame.

An uncharacteristic penalty from William Karlsson led to a power-play goal form Tampa Bay. Vegas had an opportunity to clear the puck, but Mikhail Sergachev kept in the zone, and the Lightning cycled the puck, and eventually, Ondrej Palat brought Tampa within one with his eighth of the year. That goal shifted the momentum towards the home team, but following a big Fleury save on, David Perron silenced the crowd with a highlight reel goal.

After being fed a perfect pass from Engelland, Perron performed a toe drag around Anton Stralman and ripped it past Vasilevskiy. His tenth goal of the year gave Vegas the two-goal lead again after two periods of play.

Like, the first period, the third started off with a bang when Jonathan Marchessault won a faceoff and Karlsson beat Vasilevskiy blocker side. Karlsson’s 24th goal of the season effectively put the Lightning away, and they never let them back in it. Time finally ticked off the clock, and the Vegas Golden Knights received a massive two points in a hard environment in Tampa.

My third star of the night was James Neal. His goal set the tone for the rest of the game, and the Knights fed off that shift. His linemate David Perron earned my second star adding an assist and a beauty of a goal.

Marc-Andre Fleury earns my number one star. He stopped 28 of 29 shots and made some huge saves in the second period to keep the Knights up by one at the time. Overall, he was a huge reason why the Knights got the job done against the NHL’s best.

Next: Vegas Golden Knights Sign Defenseman Jon Merrill

Overall, excellent performance on the road against the league’s number one team. They sit two points behind Tampa for the league lead but most importantly they’re up nine points over both San Jose and Calgary in the Pacific division. Quick turnaround against the Florida Panthers tomorrow night with Malcolm Subban most likely manning the crease.