The Vegas Golden Knights kicked off their longest homestand of the season with a 7-5 win against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Five different players lit the lamp for Vegas in the opening frame, and the Golden Knights carried leads of four goals and three goals into the first and second intermissions, respectively. But what initially appeared to be a blowout turned into a bit of a nailbiter when Chicago pulled within one midway through the third period.
However, with its third goal of the game, the Golden Knights’ new-look third line of Ivan Barbashev, Brett Howden and Keegan Kolesar potted the insurance marker with 4:15 remaining to hold off the surging Blackhawks and come away with two points.
The game marked the return of defenseman Alec Martinez, who left via free agency last summer after spending parts of five seasons in Sin City and helping Vegas lift its first Stanley Cup.
Coming off a disappointing third-period collapse against Los Angeles earlier this week, Vegas wasted no time getting on the scoresheet tonight.
The first of five first-period goals came just 66 seconds into the contest, as Kolesar scored to give the Golden Knights the early edge. Howden made an excellent centering pass to set up the play.
At 6:58, Nick Foligno put home his own rebound to even the score at 1-1 following a nice save by Ilya Samsonov on the initial shot.
But the Golden Knights responded with four unanswered goals, two of which came on the man-advantage.
Nicolas Hague scored his fourth of the season on another stellar shift by the third line. Barbashev and Howden went to work in transition, and Hague followed up on Howden’s rebound to take back the lead.
The Blackhawks took three consecutive penalties in the span of just 5:23, and Vegas converted on two of them, with Barbashev tipping an Alex Pietrangelo point shot and Tomas Hertl scoring from the slot off a feed from Jack Eichel, who was given way too much time and space.
The assist was Eichel’s 51st of the season, which is a new franchise high.
The three goals were scored in the span of 7:57.
Just over two minutes later, Pavel Dorofeyev added one more for good measure, corralling the puck along the boards, deking around the defender and beating Chicago netminder Petr Mrazek, who was pulled between periods.
The Blackhawks responded with back-to-back goals early in the middle frame, making it a 5-3 contest on Ethan Del Mastro’s first career NHL goal 5:30 into the period.
Kolesar then scored his second of the night at 13:38 to put Vegas up by three. He and Barbashev teamed up once again, though it was Nicolas Roy’s move along the boards and his backhand centering feed to Barbashev that set things up.
The Golden Knights led 6-3 going into the third period.
Once again, the Blackhawks scored the first two goals of the frame. Ilya Mikheyev beat Samsonov cleanly, and Phillip Kurashev made it a 6-5 game less than three minutes later at 9:44.
The Golden Knights were on their heels, but Barbashev recorded his fourth point of the night at 15:45 to restore the multi-goal lead, which Vegas rode to the finish line.
As Kolesar put it, this game was a “coach’s nightmare.”
It was another game in which the Golden Knights failed to execute for 60 minutes, and it was way too close for comfort in the third period.
But while there were a lot of self-inflicted mistakes that ended up in the back of the net, the Golden Knights were able to explode for seven goals to get back in the win column.
Vegas also went 2-for-3 on the power play and didn’t take a penalty, which contributed to the outcome.
But perhaps the most noticeable factor stemmed from Bruce Cassidy’s line shuffling. It’s only one game, but if this performance is any indication, the Golden Knights may have found themselves a third line.
Barbashev, Howden and Kolesar combined for eight points at 5-on-5, with Barbashev finishing the game with two goals (one on the power play) and two assists, Howden tallying three assists and Kolesar scoring twice.
The trio led 21-10 in Corsi, 10-5 in shots and 3-1 in goals in 11:51, getting the most ice time of any Vegas line combination on the night.
But while the offensive outburst was a positive, the defensive mistakes and shaky goaltending made this a much closer game than it should have been. That was particularly true following Monday’s third-period collapse in Los Angeles.
Part of it was Vegas taking its foot off the gas with a 5-1 lead through 20 minutes, and Chicago deserves credit for being opportunistic and for not sitting back. But Samsonov stopped 17 of 22 shots for a .773 save percentage, making it his second straight game with a save percentage below .775. Not all of it was on Samsonov, as puck management was especially problematic in the second period, though he wasn’t nearly sharp enough.
“There’s lots of positives, but we need to clean up the goals against,” Cassidy said. “That’s five in two games in a row, and that’s too many.”
Samsonov has given up 10 goals on the last 41 shots he’s faced this week, good for a save percentage of .756.
“Fortunately, we scored enough to give ourselves a cushion, and that matters,” Cassidy said. “You’re going to have games like this where, defensively, you’re not where you want to be or you don’t get the stops you want. But at least we’re in the win column, and we can’t overlook that.”
No matter what, Vegas will need much better goaltending down the stretch, regardless of who is in the crease. It’s possible Adin Hill could see an uptick in starts as the playoff race heats up. Hill was supposed to start Monday in Los Angeles but wasn’t feeling well, and Samsonov was originally scheduled to face Chicago. However, Hill should be between the pipes when Vegas hits the ice Sunday against New Jersey.
After Paul Cotter’s return to The Fortress, the Golden Knights will host Toronto, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles before hitting the road for four matchups against Eastern Conference teams.
The Golden Knights (35-18-6) wrapped up the month of February with a 4-3-0 overall record, though losing Shea Theodore in the 4 Nations Face-Off was a decisive and critical loss. With Edmonton losing to Florida earlier on Thursday, Vegas (76 points) now has a four-point lead over the Oilers (72) through 59 games.