Vegas Golden Knights overcome late scare to win a huge one in Calgary
It was a huge win for the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday as they downed the Calgary Flames 5-3 at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
In what was the first game of a colossal back-to-back, the Vegas Golden Knights overcame some adversity to bounce back from a tough loss in Winnipeg on Friday.
Racing into a three-goal lead, things were going to plan for the Golden Knights until the Flames came roaring back with three unanswered goals.
The contest could have spiralled out of control for Vegas from that point on, but they regained their composure and escaped with a big two points thanks to Shea Theodore‘s game-winner.
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After allowing a goal on the first shot in three of their previous four outings, the Golden Knights bucked that trend in Calgary.
Tomas Nosek, who has been banged up more often than not as of late, got Vegas on the board at 5:24 in the first period after firing home a rebound following some good work by Ryan Reaves.
Nick Holden made it a two-goal game midway through the first period, joining the rush and then burying a silky feed from Nick Cousins on a two-on-one odd-man rush.
It was near domination by the Golden Knights and they landed another blow on the chin of the Flames early in the second period, with Max Pacioretty one-timing home a dish from William Karlsson on the power play.
However, things quickly began to fall apart for Vegas after Milan Lucic skated in on an odd-man rush before squeezing a shot through Robin Lehner.
That spelled the start of the fightback as Dillon Dube made it a one-goal game towards the end of the middle frame, collecting a pinpoint pass from Mikael Backlund before ripping an unstoppable wrister past Lehner.
And the Flames, despite being outshot 10-5 in the third period, made it a tied game in the final minutes thanks to Matthew Tkachuk, who backhanded the puck in the net with Lehner stranded all at sea.
But, credit where credit is due, the Golden Knights refused to crumble and they avoided going to overtime thanks to Shea Theodore.
With only a couple of minutes remaining, the defenseman fired a shot towards goal and it bounced off a stick and over Calgary goalie David Rittich for the go-ahead goal.
It was a huge moment in the game and Jonathan Marchessault iced the contest in the waning seconds after scoring an empty-netter.
This was a massive win for the Vegas Golden Knights who reclaimed top spot in the Pacific Division ahead of a huge showdown with the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game…