Vegas Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer will not have much time to enjoy his 500th career NHL coaching victory that came Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks.
With his team in the thick of a very competitive playoff race in the Western Conference, the Golden Knights now have the Boston Bruins on deck Thursday night at Las Vegas.
“Yeah, really 500 is in the rearview mirror,” DeBoer said shortly after his team’s 3-1 victory over the Sharks. “We probably won’t talk about it again. We’re on to the next game. We’re in a dogfight here to the end. … Put your head down and go to work. We have a lot left to accomplish here.”
The Golden Knights remained in third place in the Pacific Division with the win. However, shortly before faceoff, the surging Edmonton Oilers briefly leapfrogged the Golden Knights in the standings. For a short time, the Golden Knights moved into fourth place and the second wild-card spot with the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks both nipping on their heels.
The game against Boston will be the second of 16 over a 30-day stretch for Vegas which remains without captain Mark Stone, who remains on long term injured reserve with a back injury. Left wing Max Pacioretty (lower body), center Mattias Janmark (upper body) and defenseman Alec Martinez (head injury) also are out.
“We have 16 games this month,” said forward Keegan Kolesar who scored his sixth goal of the season in Tuesday’s win. “That’s a lot of hockey. … Months like this you can either fall to the pits or rise to the heavens there. For us we want to string as many wins together as we can this month and give ourselves a great opportunity to get into the playoff picture early.”
Goaltender Robin Lehner, who missed five games with an upper-body injury, returned for Tuesday’s win and stopped 16 of 17 shots to pick up his 20th win of the season in 35 starts. The team was 1-3-1 while he was away.
“It’s nice to get back out there obviously,” Lehner said. “The team played great today and made it pretty easy. It was definitely nice to get back out there and just get a win again and try to get it going here.”
The Golden Knights follow Thursday’s game with one at Anaheim on Friday in a difficult back-to-back.
“We all need to get going now and string some wins together,” said Lehner. “We need everyone and get ready for the push down the road here.”
Boston had a five-game win streak snapped at Anaheim 4-3 on Tuesday in the second half of a back-to-back that began with a 7-0 blowout victory at Los Angeles on Monday. That resounding victory snapped the Kings’ five-game win streak.
The Bruins fell behind 3-1 in the first period against the Ducks before battling back to tie it on goals by Brandon Carlo and David Pastrnak. But Charlie McAvoy was called for a hooking penalty on Ryan Getzlaf with 46 seconds left and Trevor Zegras scored the game-winner 24 seconds later to deny Boston a point from the hard-fought contest.
“That’s why this one stings,” said forward Nick Foligno who had a goal, an assist and a five-minute fighting major. “You hate to have it decided with a power play at the end. It seemed like a game destined to (go) the extra five and see where it goes from there.”
–Field Level Media