Vegas Golden Knights: Five Best Regular Season Games

The Vegas Golden Knights had a ton of great games over the course of their inaugural season.

We all know the Vegas Golden Knights playoff run starts tomorrow against the Los Angeles Kings at T-Mobile Arena. It’s going to be a grueling series from start to finish, and I believe it’s going to take the the full seven games. However, let’s not forget how we got to this point.

The expansion franchise put on a show right from the opening puck drop of the regular season in Dallas. The regular season provided very few snoozers and lots of action for Vegas Golden Knights fans. I expect the same to carry over into the postseason.

We’re going to do a fun one today on the eve of the playoffs. We’re going to countdown the best regular season games from the Vegas Golden Knights inaugural campaign. But before we give our top five, let’s give an honorable mention:

Honorable mention: October 27th, 2017 Game #9 Vegas Golden Knights def Colorado Avalanche 7-0

No one ever forgets the first rout. And everyone remembers the first shutout in team history.  The Golden Knights dominated this game, but it took them a little while to get going.

It took almost halfway through the entire game to get the games first goal, but when David Perron opened the scoring, and the floodgates opened. Oscar Lindberg also scored one of the more prettier goals of the year for the Golden Knights.

11 different players each registered at least one point and seven different goal scorers for Vegas en route to a 7-0 victory. Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov gave up all seven goals and stopping only 14 shots on 21 attempts. Meanwhile, his unusual adversary was perfect throughout the game.

Third-string goaltender Oscar Dansk stopped all 32 shots and went down in the record books as the first Golden Knights goaltender to ever record a shutout. It was also the first shutout of his NHL career. He was appointed the team’s first star of the game and rightfully so.

5) March 18th, 2018 Game #72 Vegas Golden Knights def Calgary Flames 4-0

I know what many of you are thinking. Why would he choose this game? The parameters of this game were huge for the Flames, but the Golden Knights also needed to have this one.

The team came into this game losing their worst games of the year 8-3 against New Jersey and followed that with a lousy effort in a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild. While they still had a pretty firm hold on the division, the team needed to get back on track in a big way. The Flames came out strong, but they couldn’t find a way to get one past Marc-Andre Fleury. The Golden Knights once again took a while to break the ice but eventually in the second period, that’s precisely what they did.

Colin Miller scored the first goal of the game from the blue line and gave Vegas a 1-0 lead in the second period. The goal woke the crowd up and most importantly woke the team up as well. From that point on, it was the William Karlsson show at T-Mobile Arena.

Karlsson scored not one, not two but three goals in a span of eight and a half minutes in the middle frame and put the Golden Knights up to a comfortable 4-0 lead. This was Karlsson’s second hat trick of the season, but this time it was a natural hat trick.

The Golden Knights went on to beat the Flames 4-0 and put those past losses in the rearview mirror. Even though Karlsson stole the show, it was Fleury who staved off the Flames in the early portion of the game.

4) October 6th, 2017 Game #1 Vegas Golden Knights def Dallas Stars 2-1

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.

3) March 31st, 2018 Game #79 Vegas Golden Knights def San Jose Sharks 3-2

Before the game, the Golden Knights once more had a great tribute in honor of the victims in the Las Vegas shooting on October 1st. The Golden Knights retired the #58 in honor of the lives that were lost on that sad day. All I can say is that was a classy touch by a classy organization.

The last home game of the regular season and there was an added buzz to this one. With a single point, the Golden Knights would clinch a Pacific division title in their first year of existence. The only thing standing in their way from the crown is a team that’s playing its best hockey all year long.

Shea Theodore opened up the scoring just over two minutes in when he sniped one past Sharks goalie Martin Jones. Joe Pavelski quickly answered four and a half minutes later to tie the game heading into the middle frame.

Scoring from an unlikely source is always welcomed. And Oscar Lindberg did just that when he tipped home Theodore’s shot from the point to put Vegas back out in front. However, Marc-Edouard Vlasic tied the game on a backhand shot that Fleury couldn’t see.

Jon Merrill took a tough tripping call nearly halfway through the third period, but it turned out to be a blessing. William Karlsson tipped a pass in the defensive zone, went on the breakaway and worked his magic. The shorthanded goal gave Vegas a 3-2 lead, and they never relinquished their stranglehold again.

As time was ticking off the clock, the reality started to set in as Golden Knights fans began to celebrate. When the clock read zero, the Golden Knights immediately put “Pacific Division Champions” on the big jumbotron at center ice.

Karlsson and Theodore each earned the third and second stars of the game while the fans at the game took the number one star. The building was indeed the loudest the building has ever been. This one was a natural choice to make anyone’s top five regular-season games list.

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

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.