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Golden Knights defeat Kraken 5-2 for fourth straight win

Posted on by Jillian Wagner

The Vegas Golden Knights took care of business once again when they secured a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena.

After getting shut out by a combined score of 7-0 against Minnesota and Winnipeg last week, the Golden Knights have since won four games in a row, outscoring their opponents 19-7 in that stretch.

That includes back-to-back wins against Seattle to complete the season series sweep, giving Vegas an all-time record of 4-0-0 against the NHL’s newest franchise.

Jack Eichel helped Vegas kick off the final month of the regular season with a bang, recording his first two-goal game with the Golden Knights. Evgenii Dadonov and Chandler Stephenson had multi-point efforts, and Shea Theodore scored for the second game in a row. Logan Thompson made 26 saves on 28 shots for his seventh win of the year.

Eichel opened the scoring just past the midway mark of the first period, one-timing a centering feed from Alec Martinez to give Vegas a 1-0 lead 10:28 into the contest.

It was Martinez’s first point since Oct. 29 and fourth assist of the season.

Eichel added his second of the game just 1:26 into the second period after negating an icing and going to the slot, where Dadonov found him after capitalizing on a Seattle turnover. Eichel buried it glove-side for his ninth of the year.

It marked Eichel’s first two-goal game since Feb. 22, 2020.

Theodore made it 3-0 at 7:20 of the middle frame with his second goal in two games after going (ironically) 27 without lighting the lamp.

It may not have been quite as fancy as his breakaway goal the other night, but Theodore beat Philipp Grubuaer cleanly off a feed from Dadonov, his second helper of the night.

Theodore’s tally proved to be the game-winner and gave the Golden Knights a 3-0 edge through two periods.

But Alex Wennberg cut the Vegas lead to two when he scored 10:44 into the third off a drop pass from Jared McCann.

The goal snapped Thompson’s shutout streak at 121:51.

Jonathan Marchessault later made it 4-1 with his second empty-net goal in two games, but Seattle responded quickly.

Kole Lind scored the first goal of his NHL career to make it 4-2 with 1:38 remaining.

The Kraken made things even more interesting when they got a power play to set up a 6-on-4 with 66 seconds left, but William Karlsson scored a shorthanded empty-net goal to seal the 5-2 win.

The goal extended Karlsson’s point streak to three games, his longest of the season.

The Golden Knights were able to clog the neutral zone effectively, force turnovers and limit Seattle to just three high-danger chances at 5-on-5 in the first two periods. That, along with another strong performance by Thompson, helped Vegas collect a much-needed two points.

Thompson finished the game with a .929 save percentage and is 6-2-0 in his last eight starts.

It was a productive night for the top line of Eichel, Dadonov and Stephenson, which combined for six points (even if the trio had a miserable 28.57 percent Corsi share in 13 minutes of ice time).

Dadonov’s two assists give him six goals and 11 points in his last eight games.

Of course, it wouldn’t be 2021-22 Golden Knights hockey without some injury scares.

Dylan Coghlan had two but was able to stay on the bench after both, including when he took a puck to the face late in the contest. Thompson took a stick (Stephenson’s) to the back of the head but was able to remain in the game.

After picking up a critical four points in Seattle, the Golden Knights currently sit in the second wildcard seed with 80 points. Edmonton is three points ahead with a game in hand, while Dallas is one point behind with four games in hand.

The Golden Knights will look to keep the winning streak going with a home-and-home against Vancouver on Sunday and Wednesday.

Talking Points