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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Vegas Golden Knights came in from the cold after Saturday’s day/night NHL outdoor game in Lake Tahoe and looked like a new team Monday in Denver, where the Knights battled the Colorado Avalanche for a fourth consecutive game.
VGK coach Pete DeBoer threw his four lines into a blender and promoted Alex Tuch from the third line to the top line with Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone, while dropping William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault to the third line with Nic Roy.
The shakeup of lines sparked the Knights to improved play in period one after the Avalanche defeated the VGK two straight games by the same score of 3-2.
In the latter stages of the first period, Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury looked like a Cirque du Soleil acrobat with a couple of Matrix mode saves to keep the first 20 minutes scoreless.
Tuch enjoyed his new top lane status by accelerating to the Colorado goal on a power play and beating Philipp Grubauer and then added a five-on-five goal with a backhander that Grubauer blocked, but the puck ricocheted off a defender into the net.
It was 2-0 Golden Knights midway through the second stanza.
Marchessault then snapped a wrist shot through the Grubauer five hole soon afterwards and the Golden Knights had a 3-0 edge in the second period.
The Avs’ all-world forward, Nathan MacKinnon, had only one shot through two periods as the Golden Knights outshot Colorado, 22-18, after two periods.
A scoreless third period meant a 3-0 victory for the Golden Knights and a free dozen Krispy Kreme donuts to folks in Las Vegas if they buy the first 12 under a VGK shutout promotion. Fleury made 34 saves and it was his third shutout of the season.
The win means the Knights and Avs split their four-game series and Vegas is back in first place in the West Division.
The Knights plan to have about 2,600 fans at a home game a week from tonight at T-Mobile Arena as local and state officials gave the four-year NHL franchise the green light to have fans. Here’s a sampling of fan reaction: