On Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights wrapped up a back-to-back at home against the Los Angeles Kings. They jumped out to an early lead and scored four goals in the first period. Very little happened in the remaining 40 minutes, and the Golden Knights held on for a 4-1 win.
Yesterday, the Golden Knights got a much-needed win over the Vancouver Canucks to snap a five-game losing streak. Now, they’ll head into the Olympic break on a high after winning two in a row.
The Golden Knights broke the ice at 8:22 in the first. After Jack Eichel won an offensive zone face-off, he executed a give-and-go with Mark Stone and went top shelf to beat Anton Forsberg.
The Golden Knights doubled their lead at 11:49 in the first. Jack Eichel won a foot race and beat Cody Ceci to Reilly Smith’s dump-in. He found Ivan Barbashev back-door, but the redirect went wide. Barbashev corralled the puck behind the net and threaded a pass to Mark Stone, who finished off a backhand.
The Golden Knights added another on the power play at 13:29 in the first period. Jack Eichel found Tomáš Hertl in the bumper, who one-touched the puck to Mark Stone below the goal line. Stone threaded a pass to Pavel Dorofeyev in the right circle, and Dorofeyev fired it home.
Just 20 seconds later, the Golden Knights struck again. Noah Hanifin intercepted Joel Edmundson’s clearing attempt, and Pavel Dorofeyev slapped the puck deeper into the zone. Edmundson again tried to clear; this time, Mitch Marner batted it down. Dorofeyev got to the loose puck and swept a pass to Marner, who slammed a shot past Anton Forsberg with so much force he fell over.
The Kings got on the board at 15:03 in the first. Anton Forsberg kicked out Jeremy Lauzon’s shot, and Anže Kopitar got to the loose puck. Kopitar banked a pass ahead to Joel Armia, who took a hit to make a play and sprung Trevor Moore. More blew past Shea Theodore, drove to the net, and beat Adin Hill with a sneaky chip shot.
Moore’s goal gave the Kings a spark of life, but they couldn’t make anything of it. In the final two periods, they outshot the Golden Knights 22-12. But Adin Hill saved 30 of the 31 shots he faced and recorded a .970 save percentage.
“He was outstanding,” said Noah Hanifin postgame. “All of the saves we needed him to make, he was there for us. [He was] just really composed in net.”
Despite taking five penalties, the Golden Knights didn’t allow another goal and rolled to a 4-1 victory.
