Three-goal second period leads the Vegas Golden Knights past the Philadelphia Flyers

Mark Stone and Nicolas Hague scored within the first 1:22 of the second period, leading the Golden Knights to a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Ilya Samsonov had 23 saves, starting the New Year with the same winning pep that ended the last one.

The first period didn’t start on a happy Sabrina Carpenter-esque melody for the Golden Knights. 21 seconds into the game, Tyson Foerster capitalized on a foggy-looking start by the Golden Knights to score his 13th of the season. Give credit to Noah Coates for the nice step move that got Ilya Samsonov to bite enough for Foerster to score off the rebound.

Things settled down and Vegas came out of the goal with a renewed pep in their step, livening up the pace for the next eight minutes in the period. A couple of near-chances came to naught throughout the period to no avail. All in all, it looked much like the third period on Tuesday afternoon: spurts of offense squelched by bad luck and solid goaltending.

Thankfully, that feeling was happily buried 51 seconds into the second period thanks to Mark Stone’s ninth, deflecting a well-threaded shot by Jack Eichel…

…followed over a minute later by Nicolas Hague with a sweet workman-like wraparound for his third goal.

That burst of luck propelled the Vegas Golden Knights

From that little burst of good fortune, Vegas looked in the period like the team we’ve seen the past month and change. That included Samsonov, who looked much more composed compared to the first. The Golden Knights doubled the amount of shots they registered in the first by the middle half of the second. You could see the proverbial air coming out of the balloon for Philadelphia in the second, especially after Pavel Dorofeyev thumped a snapper past Kolosov late in the period.

As the third period dawned, more air was squeezed as Vegas registered the first four shots before Alexander Holtz scored his third goal of the season (first since December 4th). The reaction was a nice touch, one that could’ve been even larger given his puck luck the past month.

After a Noah Hanifin holding call, Travis Keonecky scored his 18th of the season giving a much-needed jolt for the Flyers heading into the meat of the third. Ultimately, the jolt wore off and the Vegas defense (along with another empty netter for Tanner Pearson) proceeded to give 2025 a much-needed happy start.

Next on the Marquee:

The Vegas Golden Knights are back on Saturday night at 7 P.M. to welcome the Buffalo Sabres, whose goaltending situation is not that far off from Philadelphia’s right now. They blew a three-goal lead and two two-goal leads in losing to Colorado 6-5 in overtime earlier tonight.

In short, the goal horn’s probably getting a lot of work. Expect some Panic at the Disco to play on the speakers at T-Mobile Arena. It'll be a barnburner with the Golden Knights putting on a show for the home crowd. Until then…