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Vegas Golden Knights: Five Best Regular Season Games

By Richard Cardinale

LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 10: (L-R) Nate Schmidt #88, Luca Sbisa #47, William Carrier #28, and Tomas Nosek #92 of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrate after scoring a goal during their inaugural regular-season home opener against the Arizona Coyotes at T-Mobile Arena on October 10, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 10: (L-R) Nate Schmidt #88, Luca Sbisa #47, William Carrier #28, and Tomas Nosek #92 of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrate after scoring a goal during their inaugural regular-season home opener against the Arizona Coyotes at T-Mobile Arena on October 10, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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4) October 6th, 2017 Game #1 Vegas Golden Knights def Dallas Stars 2-1

DALLAS, TX – OCTOBER 06: James Neal #18 of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrates with Nate Schmidt #88 of the Vegas Golden Knights and Oscar Lindberg #24 of the Vegas Golden Knights after scoring the first goal in team history against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on October 6, 2017, in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX – OCTOBER 06: James Neal #18 of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrates with Nate Schmidt #88 of the Vegas Golden Knights and Oscar Lindberg #24 of the Vegas Golden Knights after scoring the first goal in team history against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on October 6, 2017, in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

Of course, this game had to be on there. This was the one that started it all for the Vegas Golden Knights. Every Vegas Golden Knights fan, including myself, were on the edge of my seat for this one.

Expectations were low early in the year, and no one really thought anything of this team. Vegas fans came out and made some noise on the road hoping for a victory in their first game. But what happened before the game even started was the moment of the night.

The Dallas Stars and their fans paused for a moment of silence due to the Las Vegas shooting that occurred just five days prior. It was a classy gesture by the Stars organization, and both teams coaching staffs embraced one another.

Vegas had a stable first period, but couldn’t find a way to put one past goaltender Ben Bishop. In the second period, the ice tilted in the Stars favor heavily. Tyler Seguin tipped one past Marc-Andre Fleury on the power play to give the Stars a 1-0 lead late in the second period.

The turning point occurred when Reilly Smith took a shot that hit Bishop in the mask, and he had to exit the game. In stepped Kari Lehtonen and the Golden Knights took advantage of a cold goaltender coming off the bench.

James Neal scored the first goal in franchise history beating Lehtonen five-hole on a delayed penalty. Just under seven minutes later, Jason Garrison sprung Cody Eakin to give the Golden Knights an odd-man rush. Eakin saucered the puck over to Neal and on one knee roofed it past Lehtonen to provide Vegas with a 2-1 lead with under two minutes left.

Despite a late push by Dallas, the Golden Knights came out on the winning end in their first game in franchise history. Fleury earned the number one star by stopping 45 shots on 46 shot attempts. The game was an emotional roller coaster, to say the least.

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