Vegas Golden Knights: Smith steps up to bring down the Blue Jackets

Reilly Smith continued his golden touch in-front of goal with two tucks as the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.

In what was the perfect start to a four-game road trip, the Vegas Golden Knights did what they had to do to grind out a win and their efforts were helped by big nights from Smith and veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

After dropping a game to the Winnipeg Jets in Overtime on Saturday night, the Golden Knights were looking to hit the reset button as they hit the road for a lengthy trip.

They were gifted an opportunity to get off to the perfect start, too, after going on the power play with Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson given two minutes for hooking.

However, the Knights couldn’t get anything going in what was a rare misplay by what is normally a red hot power play.

Fleury, playing in his first game since returning from a bout of flu, was busy doing usual Marc-Andre Fleury things as he pulled off a couple of fine stops, including a sublime save on a Sonny Milano shot.

And Fleury’s continued brilliance laid the platform for the Knights to land the first blow of the night with just 44 seconds left in the first period.

William Karlsson – playing in his former barn – dished the puck to Reilly Smith who drove hard to the front of the net before throwing the puck on goal via a defenseman.

It was yet another perfect example of how lethal Vegas’ top line can be with Karlsson, Smith and Jonathan Marchessault playing at the peak of their powers so far this year.

Columbus did make it a tied game at 5:37 in the second thanks to Boone Jenner, who ripped a shot over the glove of Fleury who had made two consecutive stops in the lead up to the goal.

But it wasn’t long before the Vegas Golden Knights edged back in-front and it was that man Reilly Smith again.

With the Blue Jackets on the power play, Nick Holden broke up a play in the offensive zone before giving the puck to Karlsson who fed Smith and the forward applied the finishing touch for his second tally of the night.

Fleury came up big when he needed to while Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo made a big save of his own on a William Karlsson one-timer to keep it a one-goal game.

Nic Hague produced a superb play to break up a dangerous two-on-one in the third period, while Jon Merrill also saved a certain goal after swiping the puck away which had squeezed through the pads of Fleury.

And those kind of plays proved the difference as the Golden Knights held on for the win to get this four-game swing on the road underway in style.

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