Tonight, the Vegas Golden Knights returned home to face the Arizona Coyotes after their mid-week series split with the St. Louis Blues.
Vegas had a dominant first period but played without much enthusiasm the rest of the way which explained the tightening of the scoreboard. Robin Lehner made 22 saves in his eighth win of the season continuing his great return from injury.
The Golden Knights struggled out of the gate during both games in St. Louis and looked to change that tonight, and they did as they spent most of the early stages in the offensive zone.
The Golden Knights went to the power play, which has struggled mightly lately. They were able to capitalize and break the drought, it was Jonathan Marchessault with a nice wrist shot to beat Arizona goaltender, Adin Hill.
Seconds later, Vegas continued to pile on as William Carrier was able to jam in a goal after a mad scramble in front of the net.
The domination continued for Vegas as it was Keegan Kolesar who made a great play to takeaway the puck in the offensive zone. After he stole the puck, he flipped around and ripped one passed Hill, who was rightfully angry with his teammates.
The Golden Knights were whistled for slashing, which usually means that the momentum would swing to Arizona but that was not the case in this instance.
William Karlsson made a beautiful block to get the puck out of the zone, and Reilly Smith broke with him for a 2-on-0 shorthanded opportunity. They played catch, left Hill no chance and buried it passed him to extend the lead to four.
This was total domination from the Golden Knights as they outshot the Coyotes 18-2 only 10 minutes in.
The Coyotes began to get their feat but Robin Lehner, sporting his new reverse retro pads, was able to keep them off the board and take them to the locker room with their large lead.
The Golden Knights came out in the second period and continued their domination of the Coyotes. Chandler Stephenson walked in all alone on Hill and buried it five-hole.
Late in the period, the Coyotes went to the power play and were able to capitalize as Nick Schmaltz beat Lehner on the man advantage.
The Golden Knights didn’t show up in the beginning of the third period as the Coyotes were able to score twice in the first four minutes of the period. One from Dryden Hunt and another from Clayton Keller.
Around the midway point of the period, Smith scored his second of the game on the first Vegas shot in over nine minutes.
Seconds after, Michael Bunting notched a goal and shrunk the Vegas lead right back to two goals.
The Coyotes pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, and Max Pacioretty was able to bury the empty-netter which put this one on ice.
The horn sounded on the Golden Knights 26th victory of the season which moved them to 26-11-2 on the season for a total of 54 points.
Vegas and Arizona will once again do battle inside T-Mobile Arena with a Sunday matinee. May we all be blessed to not deal with that ridiculousness again.