The Vegas Golden Knights (27-16-14) picked up their second victory in 24 hours with a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings (23-19-14) Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena.
The Golden Knights won this game in the first period, scoring four goals in the span of just 5:27 to take a commanding 4-0 lead. Los Angeles pulled within three later in the frame, but Adin Hill and the Golden Knights shut down the Kings the rest of the way to secure a critical two points.
The Golden Knights head into the Olympic break having swept their back-to-back set against Vancouver and Los Angeles, and they hold a four-point lead atop the Pacific Division standings.
The Golden Knights’ big hitters showed up, and they made a difference early to help the Golden Knights play with a lead instead of chase.
Vegas got goals from Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Pavel Dorofeyev and Mitch Marner, and the top line combined for six even-strength points. Dorofeyev tied the franchise record for most power-play goals in a single season with his 14th of the year and is now second in the NHL behind only Wyatt Johnston (18). Marner recorded career point No. 799 and heads into the break with 58 points in 57 games.
Even Kai Uchacz got involved, dropping the mitts in his second NHL game.
It was all hands on deck for the Golden Knights, and the dominant start carried them to the finish line.
For the second game in a row, Eichel opened the scoring for Vegas.
The top line struck again less than four minutes later when the captain matched Eichel with his 21st of the year.
The third goal came on the power play, which has been inconsistent for the Golden Knights throughout their recent struggles. It was a familiar setup, however, with Stone finding Dorofeyev for the one-timer.
The Golden Knights added one more for good measure just 20 seconds later to make it a four-goal game.
But just over a minute later, Kings forward (and noted Golden Knights killer) Trevor Moore answered with his seventh of the year. Moore used his speed to get around Shea Theodore, and Hill went for the two-pad-stack poke-check but missed.
With the secondary assist on the play, Anze Kopitar hit a significant milestone with the 1300th point of his career.
Hill came up with a particularly clutch save on an Adrian Kempe breakaway early in the second period to preserve Vegas’ three-goal lead. The Kings threw everything they had at Vegas in an attempt to play catch-up, but Hill was sharp, turning aside all 10 shots he faced. It was his best 20 minutes since returning from his injury.
With the lead, the Golden Knights were able to close out the win in the third period. At one point, Bruce Cassidy even threw Cole Reinhardt, Kai Uchacz, Braeden Bowman, Ben Hutton and Theodore onto the ice for a late power play.
“It’s late in the game, and you don’t want to run up the score, and I’ve got lots of respect for LA,” Cassidy said. “At the end of the day, it’s a little bit of an opportunity for [the players] and a reward.”
This was a much-needed performance for Hill, who got plenty of goal support early but backed it up with his best performance of the season. He finished the game with 32 saves on 33 shots for a .970 save percentage and made timely saves when he needed to, including the massive stop on Kempe in the second period.
Eichel singled out this save as a key moment in the game. He also discussed the fact that Hill came through with many stops while the Golden Knights were shorthanded, as Vegas was down a man five times throughout the game. The Vegas penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5, and Hill was a huge part of that.
Hill also looked more confident and more settled in the crease. He didn’t overcommit, didn’t need to scramble and seemed to be tracking the puck much better than he has in recent starts.
“He was outstanding,” Noah Hanifin said about the Vegas netminder. “All the saves we needed him to make, he was there for us, and he was really composed in net. … Every time we were caught, he was there and made huge stops for us.”
Cassidy also had high praise for Hill.
“Adin was excellent,” he said. “We gave him some run support early, he made a couple saves early. It was kind of a really uneven game. We’re in the box, it seemed like there were a million whistles. We kind of left him out there a little bit. We didn’t stop playing, but we weren’t at the same urgency level. … Now that it’s over, it’s good for him. He’s gonna go home today, and he’s gonna feel really good about his game. Probably his best one of the year.”
Cassidy has commented in the past that the Golden Knights need four goals to win, which is a tall task on a nightly basis in a competitive league. However, it didn’t prove to be an issue for the Golden Knights on this occasion, as Vegas was completely dominant and exceptionally efficient in the opening 20 minutes.
“It was a really good first period, something we haven’t had a lot of,” Cassidy said.
The Golden Knights rode their early outburst to victory.
“It was a good start; that’s what we wanted,” Eichel said. “We wanted to get out to a lead and play with a lead, and I thought we did that. … I thought it was a good effort from our group. Obviously, it’s a lot easier to play with a lead than it is playing from behind. Credit to the guys for being ready to go tonight. It was a big win.”
The Golden Knights needed these two wins and four points ahead of the Olympic break, which will feature eight different Golden Knights players as well as Cassidy.
The Golden Knights have struggled with consistency for a while, but they needed to go into the break on a positive note.
“I think there’s a grind going into [the Olympic break] a little bit,” Cassidy said. “Maybe the last week or 10 days, guys are starting to prepare. … Tonight for our guys, it was ‘OK, we got one more game, we’re at home, it’s an important game, we had a nice win yesterday, let’s build on it and then we get our break.’ … I think that’s where our energy came from.”
The four-point lead in the Pacific gives Vegas a little breathing room going into the final 25 games of the regular season.
“It’s been a little uneven here,” Eichel said. “We’ve been streaky. … When we’re not playing our best, it feels like we can’t find points. We’re first in our division, so we’ve done some good things this year, and we should be proud of our body of work so far.
“But at the same time, we understand that our best hockey should be ahead of us if we want to get to where we want to be. That 25 games after the break, that’s when you need to be playing your best hockey. For us, it’ll be good for some guys to get some time off and for other guys to go experience a lifelong dream, and just come back after and be ready to go and hit the ground running. It’s a sprint to the end of the year, and we gotta win every game we can.”
Photo via @GoldenKnights on X