Alex Tuch emerged as the hero the Vegas Golden Knights needed following their big 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday at PNC Arena.
Awarded a power play with minutes remaining, Tuch was in the right place at the right time to slam home the game-winner and give the Vegas Golden Knights a huge two points.
The slate was wiped clean for Vegas after the bye week and, under new Head Coach Peter DeBoer, they bucked the trend of getting off to sluggish starts by dominating the first period against the Canes.
They outshot their hosts 16-6 and got on the board twice thanks to Paul Stastny and Jonathan Marchessault.
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As was to be expected, Carolina did fight back in the second period and they gave themselves a lifeline thanks to Teuvo Teravainen, who collected a loose puck in-front of the net before beating Malcolm Subban.
Nate Schmidt started the transition out of the zone for his team before joining the rush and finishing off a feed from Chandler Stephenson to put Vegas back in the driving seat.
However, as has often been the case this year, the Golden Knights began to implode as their inability to play a complete 60-minute game threatened to hurt them again.
First, Brock McGinn fired a wrister past Malcolm Subban before Sebastian Aho converted on the power play to make it a tied game.
The momentum seemed to be in Carolina’s favor but Aho went from hero to villain as he went to the box for two minutes for hooking leading to a Vegas power play.
And Aho and the Canes were punished when the Golden Knights landed the knockout blow just five seconds into the man advantage, Stastny redirecting a Shea Theodore shot into the path of Tuch who buried the game-winner.
It was a big win for the Vegas Golden Knights and we had a handful of takeaways from the contest…