Another homestand ended like so many others have for the Golden Knights this season: a rock-solid win. Tomas Hertl, Nicolas Roy, and Jack Eichel scored in a three-goal first period that powered Vegas to a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Outside of the 6-5 loss to the Kings on March 9, they’ve only trailed for seven minutes in their last eight home games. All in all, it was a great end to a great weekend (unless you’re Mark Stone’s forehead, or Tomas Hertl’s shoulder- possibly?). Here are my three takeaways from another Sunday Funday at the Fortress.
SWEPT THE HOMESTAND 🙌#VegasBorn | #TheGoldenAge pic.twitter.com/VPR5MLmluj
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 24, 2025
Penalty kill rises to the occasion for Vegas
It’s no secret that the penalty kill has been and will be a dependable source of headaches for the Golden Knights. Last night’s win against Detroit was a small example of that. The last time an opponent’s power play was blanked by Vegas for more than two games was in late January.
Tonight was a notable highlight, killing off three power play chances for Tampa Bay (fifth-best at 25.8%). The power play encompassing the first 1:55 of the second was a major highlight that kept the temperature in that third period toasty instead of Death Valley in August. With two of the next three opponents in the bottom 20 in the league on the power play, there’s a chance for Vegas to finally build this into a big weapon in the postseason.
Have a night, Ilya Samsonov!
Coming into Sunday, Ilya Samsonov was 2-0 with a 4.88 GAA and an .833 save percentage. Was he the second coming of Dominik Hasek tonight? Not really. But he was about as close as you can get, matching up with an all-world talent like Andrei Vasilevskiy all night. In particular the last two periods when Vasilevskiy looked like his usual calm, Adamantium wall-esque self. For a guy to hold a solid Tampa offense to two goals on 34 shots is a massive confidence boost for a guy needing it.
That’s it for the East until the Stanley Cup [knock on wood]
There’s a lot that’s been said about the struggles Vegas have had against Eastern Conference opponents. But thanks to the past couple of homestands (all against the East), that’s starting to change. On the season, the Golden Knights are 16-12-3 against the East with a +14 goal differential. Before March 2nd and those six straight East home wins, that differential was +3.
Of course, there's getting through the meat grinder of the West first. But this kind of positive movement is encouraging towards that future as Vegas starts the 12-game dash to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Next on the Marquee:
The second-to-last big road trip for Vegas kicks off on Tuesday night with a trip to Minnesota to take on the Wild at 5 P.M. Like Tampa was tonight, they’ll be coming off a back-to-back at Dallas tomorrow night. So, it's a note in the hopeful column going into the game. Also, we might see Marc-Andre Fleury in net, which we haven’t seen in either of the other two games this season. It would be nice to see Flower one last time, barring any playoff drama. Until Tuesday night…