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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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2) December 19th, 2017 Game #33 Vegas Golden Knights def Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3

LAS VEGAS, NV – DECEMBER 19: Vegas Golden Knights players celebrate after Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) scores the winning goal during the third period of a regular season NHL game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Las Vegas. The Vegas Golden Knights would defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3. (Photo by: Marc Sanchez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV – DECEMBER 19: Vegas Golden Knights players celebrate after Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) scores the winning goal during the third period of a regular season NHL game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Las Vegas. The Vegas Golden Knights would defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3. (Photo by: Marc Sanchez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

This game was labeled as the first real big test for the Golden Knights. The Tampa Bay Lightning came into T-Mobile Arena as the league’s best team, and Vegas never played a team like them. And it sure looked like it to start the game as Steven Stamkos and Vladislav Namestnikov scored two power-play goals in the first period to give Tampa a quick 2-0 edge.

But the Golden Knights never waivered and answered back with two power play goals of their own. The first was from James Neal on a quick shot from the goal line past Andrei Vasilevskiy’s far side. And the second was from Jonathan Marchessault who beat the young upstart goaltender five-hole to tie the game.

The third period was one of the wildest periods of the entire year from the Golden Knights. First, Shea Theodore took a wrist shot that Erik Haula tipped past Vasilevskiy put Vegas in the driver’s seat with 15 minutes to go. Then in a crazy sequence, Victor Hedman skates it into the zone takes a simple wrist shot and it beats the Flower to tie the game. Colin Miller wanted to block the shot, but it may have tipped off him slightly, and it may have thrown Fleury off at the last second.

Deryk Engelland then took one of the weirdest penalties in hockey; “throwing the stick.” However, the Golden Knights ended up killing the penalty without one of their best penalty killers. Then things started to get interesting when Brayden Coburn took a “holding the stick” penalty in the dying seconds of the third period.

When I was watching this game at that moment, I immediately said: “they got at least point in the bank, now let’s hope for the best in overtime.” Ironically, it didn’t need overtime, as Theodore ripped one past Vasilevskiy with 2.3 seconds left. The goal sent T-Mobile Arena into a frenzy, and it was one of those “David beat Goliath” feel good moments.

Theodore racked up four points in the game (1 G, 3 A) and David Perron also added three assists. This game would’ve been number one on my list, but there’s only one game that outshined this one.

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