Vegas Golden Knights torment the Sharks once again

Have you recovered yet? The Vegas Golden Knights are now 2-0-0 to begin 2019-20 after beating the San Jose Sharks again in a thrilling 5-1 victory at the SAP Center on Friday.

After getting the better of their bitter rivals in the regular season opener on Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena, the Vegas Golden Knights beat up the Sharks once more and ruined their home opener in the process.

Despite having stud defenseman Erik Karlsson back in the lineup after he missed Wednesday night due to the birth of his child, San Jose could not contain the Knights who got a complete effort up and down the lineup.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 34 shots in his 800th NHL game, Tomas Nosek recorded his first two goals of the year, while William Carrier, Brayden McNabb and Jonathan Marchessault all got on the board too.

Nosek was the standout performer with three points (two goals, one assist) on a night where the Knights’ penalty kill really rose to the occasion and excelled.

Barclay Goodrow got the only goal of the game for the Sharks, scoring late in the third period which led to a mass brawl and multiple players getting thrown out of the game.

Rookie defenseman Nic Hague made his NHL debut for the Golden Knights and, on that note, let’s dive into the lineup and the game itself…

The Lineup

Marc-Andre Fleury got his second consecutive start between the pipes for his 800th career game in the NHL, while Nic Hague was handed his debut in the majors with Nate Schmidt week-to-week with a lower body injury.

Hague was paired with Deryk Engelland on the bottom defensive pairing, with Nick Holden slotting in on the second line alongside Jon Merrill and Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore partnering each other on the top line.

The forward lines remained the same from the 2019-20 NHL regular season opener, with Cody Glass once again centering the Knights’ second line in-between Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone.

The Game

First Period – Filled with the energy generated by a raucous home crowd, the San Jose Sharks nearly took the lead after Tomas Hertl‘s shot on the rebound went behind Marc-Andre Fleury, although it trickled along the goal line and somehow stayed out.

Cody Glass’ sublime pass set up Mark Stone but the wing couldn’t direct his one-timer on goal, although that early scare would serve as a warning to the Sharks.

And it was one they failed to heed as the Knights got their noses in-front at 5:01 in the first after Tomas Nosek produced a superb spin-o-rama pass to set up William Carrier, who went five-hole on Martin Jones.

Both teams were going back-and-forth with a flurry of shots but it was Vegas who would score the next goal, Jonathan Marchessault deflecting a Shea Theodore shot from the point past Jones after Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson combined to turn over the puck.

Vegas outshot the Sharks by a total of 13-9 in the first period and they were in complete control heading into the first intermission break.

Second Period – The Knights killed off a couple of penalties to start the middle period and their third goal came while they were killing a penalty, Brayden McNabb finding himself in the offensive zone to snipe it past Martin Jones after receiving a gorgeous dish from William Karlsson.

And it was soon 4-0 after Brandon Pirri raced out of the penalty box, latched onto the puck and fired a shot at Jones which the goalie saved, but Tomas Nosek was right behind Pirri to mop up the rebound.

Third Period – Martin Jones got pulled to start the final period with Aaron Dell his replacement, but he was powerless to prevent the Golden Knights from scoring a fifth unanswered goal.

And it was Vegas’ second shorthanded tuck of the night with Mark Stone leading the charge into the offensive zone before picking out Tomas Nosek with a sublime dish, and Nosek one-timed the puck into the net for his second goal of the evening.

Marc-Andre Fleury would have loved a shutout in order to celebrate his 800th career game in the NHL, but he was beaten with 5:55 left to play after Barclay Goodrow clawed a rebound away from Fleury and lifted it over the goalie for his first of the year.

The scrum that followed in the wake of that goal resulted in an all-out brawl which saw six players, yes six, given game misconducts including William Karlsson, Deryk Engelland and debutant Nic Hague for the Golden Knights.

It was a wild, wild finish to the game but the important factor was that the Vegas Golden Knights got the win to start 2019-20 2-0-0, outscoring the Sharks 9-2 in the opening two games of the year.

Let’s now go over some stats and notes from the game…