The Vegas Golden Knights (31-15-4) desperately needed a low-event, get-right game. Tonight, they got just that against the Florida Panthers (29-19-3).
From a pure entertainment perspective, the first two periods of the game were, for lack of a better word, boring. If you were watching the AFC Conference Championship instead, I can’t blame you. You made the right choice. However, from a hockey perspective, this ‘boring,’ low-event game was just what the doctor ordered.
“They’ll just go out and say, ‘Okay, that’s it,’” said head coach Bruce Cassidy when he met with the media last Tuesday. “‘We’re all going to have maximum effort tonight, and we’re going to do whatever it takes.’ And then we probably win a low-scoring game… Maybe the dam breaks, and we get a lot, but that’s how you get out of it, usually, and that’s what I suspect we’ll need to do.”
And that’s exactly what the Golden Knights did.
The Panthers were flying out of the gate, but Adin Hill stood tall, allowing the Golden Knights to escape the first five minutes unscathed. Tanner Pearson forced a turnover at the blue line, and Nic Roy scooped it up. Roy passed to Keegan Kolesar, and the two took off up ice. Kolesar entered the zone, pulled up, and dropped a pass to the trailing Brayden McNabb. McNabb fired a clapper that beat Spencer Knight glove side.
Keegan Kolesar bumped the puck to Nic Roy, who entered the zone with a head of steam. He pulled up, spinning Aleksander Barkov around, and held onto the puck until Aaron Ekblad committed to the hit. Right before he got drilled, Roy dropped the puck off to Tanner Pearson, who curled around the pile of bodies and beat Spencer Knight far side off the post and in.
The game opened up considerably in the third period, but the Golden Knights held the Panthers to just one goal. Uvis Balinskis pinched, collected Evan Rodrigues’ rebound, spun to avoid Kolesar’s check, and passed back to Eetu Luostarinen at the point. Luostarinen wristed a shot, and Anton Lundell redirected it past Hill.
The Golden Knights’ third goal came off of their transition game. The puck was loose in the crease in front of Adin Hill, and Alexander Holtz collected it. Holtz fed it ahead to Jack Eichel, who passed cross-ice to Ivan Barbashev. Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling knocked the pass down, but Barbashev collected it and sent Eichel on a breakaway. Eichel went forehand-backhand-forehand and slid it around Spencer Knight’s pad.
There were still over nine minutes to go in the game, but it was over. After Eichel’s goal, the Golden Knights found new life. They found their game and played sound, structured hockey. They also killed off a full two minutes of 6-on-4 before Hertl added the dagger into the empty net to officially put the game away.
“We needed it,” said Nic Hague postgame. “That one feels good, especially against a great team in Florida. I think we needed that one as a group. We’ve kind of been going through it for a little bit here. It definitely feels good to come out on the right side of this one.”
Golden Knights Notes
Tonight was Brett Howden’s 400th NHL game. I want to take a moment to acknowledge his career. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning late in the first round in 2016 and played just five games with their AHL affiliate. Howden was traded to the New York Rangers in the deal that sent JT Miller and Ryan McDonagh to the Lightning. He played 178 games for the Rangers, mostly in a fourth-line role. He was traded to the Golden Knights for peanuts. And he’s really flourished here. He’s evolved into a Swiss army knife player who can play up and down the lineup at center or wing. And I’m not in the NHL, but I imagine he’s a real pain to play against.
With an empty net, Nic Roy selflessly passed to Tomáš Hertl, allowing Hertl to score and extend his point streak to nine games– the longest point streak of Hertl’s career.
Tonight marked the first time in 14 games that a Golden Knights goaltender started two consecutive games. Goaltending has been an issue recently. Adin Hill and Ilya Samsonov hadn’t posted a performance above .900 in six games. But Hill was at the top of his game tonight and allowed just one goal on 33 shots.
With his 32-save performance, Adin Hill recorded his 19th win of the season, tying his career high in four fewer games.
The Edmonton Oilers have a game in hand, but for tonight, the Golden Knights are back on top of the Pacific Division.
