Things are really beginning to hot up for the Vegas Golden Knights after they opened 2020 with a win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
After finishing the previous Decade with consecutive wins, the Vegas Golden Knights opened the new Decade by winning their third straight at T-Mobile Arena.
It wasn’t straightforward, however, and it was a crazy and frantic first period that featured no less than six goals.
Claude Giroux got the Flyers on the board first before Shea Theodore made it a tied game, while Max Pacioretty quickly converted on the power play to shift the momentum into Vegas’ favor.
Jon Merrill, playing as a makeshift forward with both Tomas Nosek and Jonathan Merrill out of the lineup, scored his first goal of the year before Travis Konecny made things interesting.
It was an action-packed opening frame and it finished with Pacioretty tallying his second goal of the night.
Cody Glass, who had looked sharp playing on a third line with Paul Stastny and William Carrier, got on the board in the second period to seemingly freeze the game for the Golden Knights.
However, Sean Couturier scored both in the middle frame and in the 15 seconds into the final period to set up a nervy finish for the Golden Knights.
And Vegas had to weather a late storm as the Flyers went 6-on-3 for the final couple of minutes, although the Knights relied on a monster shift from one player in particular to see the game out.
On that note, let’s delve into some takeaways from the Vegas Golden Knights’ 5-4 win over the Philadelphia Flyers…