All hail Svatý Mikuláš (or Saint Nicholas, as they know him in the Czech Republic)!
Tomas Hertl scored the game-winner at 9:36 of the third period, leading the Golden Knights to a 3-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Tanner Pearson and Keegan Kolesar also scored for Vegas who head into the Christmas break on a four-game winning streak. Adin Hill had 31 saves for his sixth win in the past eight starts, and 50th in his career. Bruce Cassidy officially passed Gerrard Gallant for the most wins by a coach in the franchise's short history with 119.
Mason MacTavish was the lone scorer for Anaheim, and Lukas Dostal had 19 saves in a relief effort for John Gibson who left the game with an upper-body injury after taking an inadvertent stick to the eye from Tanner Laczynski late in the first.
Before that moment in the first though, it looked like Gibson was set to potentially steal this game from the VGK, who had five of the game's first seven shots. His best one of the night was a (begrudgingly) brilliant bit of theivery off Nicholas Hague near the midway part. It only took about 90 seconds following the injury when Tanner Pearson capitalized on a shorthanded goal on Dostal thanks to some quality defensive work by Keegan Kolesar.
Credit to Anaheim in the second period who kept things from going completely off the rails, thanks to Dostal who looked just as calm and in control as if he'd started the game. It was perilously close to becoming a tie game thanks to an Alex Killorn shot off the boards and below the linesman that nearly caught Adin Hill (understandably) by surprise. If inanimate objects could ever land on Santa's Nice list, you can make a good argument that Hill's right glove would most certainly be on it.
The luck for the VGK that permeated that save ran out at the start of the third after Mason MacTavish caught Hill drifting ever so slightly out of position and buried it to tie the game. The Ducks caught fire and turned it into a competitive game for a while, registering six of the next 10 shots before Hertl's backhand of a nifty Jack Eichel setup restored the spirits of the Fortress faithful.
After that, it was the Adin Hill show as he absorbed what was left of Anaheim before Keegan Kolesar iced it with an empty net goal. Not as pretty as it was against Seattle two nights ago, but good enough to leave with a smile as wide as Agatha Harkness in Cosmic Queen form.
Next on the Marquee:
Ham, mountains of mashed potatoes, presents, good Christmas cheer with found family as well as regular blood family, and the Doctor Who Christmas Special (to any Whovians who might be reading this). After that is a trip up to the Shark Tank for the last road game of 2024 on Friday night at 7:30 P.M. against the San Jose Sharks. The last time Vegas played San Jose, the weekend before Halloween, was a four-F quality laugher. Given the performances they've posted since then...might be different. Or at least pretty fun!