Vegas Golden Knights: Tuch’s brilliance, other takeaways from Avs win

Alex Tuch #89 of the Vegas Golden Knights scores the game-winning goal past Philipp Grubauer #31 of the Colorado Avalanche during overtime in a Western Conference Round Robin game during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images)
Alex Tuch #89 of the Vegas Golden Knights scores the game-winning goal past Philipp Grubauer #31 of the Colorado Avalanche during overtime in a Western Conference Round Robin game during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images)
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Alex Tuch #89 of the Vegas Golden Knights scores the game-winning goal past Philipp Grubauer #31 of the Colorado Avalanche during overtime in a Western Conference Round Robin game during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff.
Alex Tuch #89 of the Vegas Golden Knights scores the game-winning goal past Philipp Grubauer #31 of the Colorado Avalanche during overtime in a Western Conference Round Robin game during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images)

Vegas Golden Knights, say hello to the No.1 seed in the Western Conference.

With the top seed for the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the line, the Vegas Golden Knights out duelled the Colorado Avalanche in a 4-3 Overtime win in Edmonton on Saturday.

It meant that the Golden Knights went a perfect 3-0-0 in the round-robin games after also beating the Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues.

Robin Lehner got the start in goal to ensure that he and Marc-Andre Fleury both started two games apiece in the exhibition and round-robin contests.

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And Lehner made the save of the game in the first period to absolutely rob Mikko Rantanen with the opening frame finishing scoreless.

There was a glut of goals in the second period, however, and it was the Knights who drew first blood thanks to Jonathan Marchessault who tipped home a Shea Theodore shot from the point on the power play.

Nathan MacKinnon made it a tied game soon after before Nicolas Roy got on the board with a scrappy goal, although it looked as though it should have been awarded to Ryan Reaves.

Joonas Donskoi made it a tied game yet again in what was a crazy second period with both teams clearly desperate to take the top seed.

Both the Knights and the Avs continued to swap blows in the third period as Marchessault beat Philipp Grubauer with a filthy penalty shot, before J.T. Compher tied it up late to take the game to Overtime.

And, with plenty on the line, it was the Golden Knights who delivered thanks to Alex Tuch with the forward carrying the puck in on the rush before unleashing an absolute snipe past Grubauer to win the game and steal the top seed.

With the Vegas Golden Knights now on a collision course with the Chicago Blackhawks in Round 1, we had some takeaways from their final round-robin game…