The Vegas Golden Knights wrapped up their three-game road trip (1-0-2) through Western Canada with a convincing 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night at Rogers Arena.
It was a statement win for the Golden Knights, who now hold a three-point lead in the Pacific Division with 34 points through 24 games. Vegas is now 8-0-2 all-time at Rogers Arena.
The Golden Knights recorded a season-high 44 shots, shut down the Canucks’ top players, bested one of the top goalies in the league and did everything well in a complete team effort.
Jack Eichel finished with a game-high three points in his 500th career game. Adin Hill was perfect through two periods but was replaced by Logan Thompson in the third period for precautionary reasons due to a lower-body injury.
The Golden Knights opened the scoring less than five minutes into the first period.
Vegas sent a flurry of shots at Canucks netminder Thatcher Demko, who lost his stick in the commotion; eventually, Ivan Barbashev put one through Demko’s pads to give Vegas an important early lead. Prior to this game, Vancouver was 12-4-0 when scoring first.
The new-look top line of Eichel, Barbashev and Mark Stone struck again later in the first, giving Vegas a 2-0 lead with 3:42 left in the opening frame.
It was a wild sequence, as Stone’s spinning backhand pass hit the skates of Nicolas Hague and bounced right to Barbashev. Barbashev then sent a crisp cross-crease pass to Eichel for the backdoor one-timer, leaving no chance for Demko.
At 11:27 of the middle frame, the Golden Knights extended their lead to three goals when William Karlsson netted his team-leading 11th goal of the season with a snipe just 18 seconds into a power play.
The Golden Knights took a commanding 4-0 lead just 16 seconds into the third period when Brett Howden scored his fourth of the year. Howden won the faceoff and went to the net just in time for Alex Pietrangelo’s point shot to hit him on its way into the net.
Andrei Kuzmenko ended Vegas’ shutout bid with a 2-on-1 goal at 4:01 of the third period after the Canucks won a board battle in the neutral zone on a sloppy shift by Vegas.
However, that was all the Golden Knights allowed in a dominant showing that saw them move to 15-5-4 on the year.
Coming into tonight’s game, the Golden Knights had lost three games in a row and had dropped eight of their last 11.
They responded with what may have been their best performance of the season.
The Golden Knights carried the momentum from their third-period rally against Edmonton into tonight’s contest, which was a complete 60-minute effort. Vegas was strong in all three zones and had control of the game all night.
“It was probably one of our best games of the year,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You can always argue back and forth which one was, but I thought, overall, the way we checked, kept Vancouver’s top players, made them really work to get space, converted our chances, special teams were good. We just had no weaknesses tonight. As a coach, those are the games you love.”
Karlsson said it was “pretty close” to the kind of game Vegas wants to play.
“We were all way more connected than we have been in the previous games,” he said. “I think the legs were there a little bit more. It was clicking more today. Just good to see after a tough stretch.”
Cassidy made several adjustments to the lineup that paid off in spades.
For one thing, he reunited Eichel and Barbashev and put them with Stone; that line accounted for both first-period tallies, outshot the opposition 10-1 and held a 76.12 percent expected goal share.
“A great start from that line,” Karlsson said. “Gave us the chance to play with a two-goal lead. … I think that whole line had a great game; they really set the standard for us.”
Eichel, in particular, was a difference-maker. He led the team in shots (6), individual Corsi (8) and individual scoring chances (4) at all strengths.
“Jack was good,” Cassidy said. “On top of pucks, hanging onto pucks, challenging their D at the blue line, good defensively. He’s a big part of our kill now this year. … Against a team like tonight, you need that early on, not to give momentum. If we don’t kill penalties early — we took enough of them — we could have gotten ourselves in trouble, and he was part of that too.”
The Vegas penalty kill went 3-for-3 to tame the Canucks’ third-ranked man-advantage.
One game after going 0-for-5, the power play came through as well.
Another adjustment Cassidy made was moving Karlsson up to the top power-play unit; as the Canucks cheated towards Eichel, Karlsson took advantage of his time and space and ripped one past Demko to make it a 3-0 game in the second period.
Aside from the Canucks’ 2-on-1 conversion in the third period, Vegas essentially neutralized Vancouver’s high-powered offense. The Golden Knights held the Canucks to just 22 shots, and they limited Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes to just two.
They did all of this without Shea Theodore and Alec Martinez.
“From our perspective, their top guys were having to work hard to get through us, and you could see a little frustration starting,” Cassidy said. “We did a good job angling Hughes and not allowing him to give and go and jump into the play. He had to really work to get a shot through from the blue line. We know that he’s dangerous there.”
As the saying goes, the best offense is a good defense, and the Golden Knights proved that tonight, subduing the Canucks and scoring four goals for the second consecutive game.
“We knew they had some firepower, so obviously, first and foremost, we were trying to be sound defensively, and that led to good offense,” Ben Hutton said.
“I think we generated a lot because we defended well,” Pietrangelo said. “I think that’s kind of been our recipe, especially since Bruce got here. We’ve taken care of our end, and that has led to a lot of opportunities in the offensive zone.”
It also was the second game in a row in which the Golden Knights scored multiple goals by driving to the net, as Barbashev, Eichel and Howden scored from around the crease.
Cassidy said the team has been turning down opportunities to score greasy goals during its recent scoring drought.
“We’ve made a concerted effort to get more pucks to the net,” he said. “In Edmonton, we got three from going to the top of the crease. So we’re trying to balance that rush game, put puck possession and o-zone game with getting to the net. So I like where it is right now a little better.”
The Golden Knights’ effort was so well-balanced that the fourth line (11:16) got more ice time than the first (8:11) and third (9:49). The fourth line had an 83.49 percent expected goal share and three high-danger chances.
It was clear the Golden Knights were ready for this matchup, and they were ready from the start.
“We don’t talk about first place ever or anything like that,” Cassidy said. “We just talk about the opponent and what it means. I think our guys knew this could be a team we’re chasing, or they’re chasing us, and it’s a battle all year to be in the top spot, so let’s put our best foot forward.”
For the first time in a while, the Golden Knights did just that.
They’ll have a chance to build on that when they host the Washington Capitals on Saturday.
Statistics courtesy of NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick.
(Photo of Ivan Barbashev: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports)