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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Before the Vegas Golden Knights’ inaugural season started, there was some anxiety about whether there would be a TV cable deal in time to have a regional sports broadcaster to televise VGK games.
Back in the good ol’ days of 2017, the Golden Knights picked AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain as their regional television rightsholder. At the time, Golden Knights majority owner Bill Foley wanted the Golden Knights to be the Rocky Mountains market dominant hockey brand with the VGK televised in Montana and Utah besides Nevada.
But there was only one issue with Foley’s goal — there was already an NHL team in the Rocky Mountains. Namely, the Colorado Avalanche, which are broadcast on the Altitude Sports and Entertainment regional sports network.
During normal, pre-pandemic times, the Golden Knights/Avalanche battle for Rocky Mountains supremacy was not overly dramatic.
But my how things have changed now that a COVID-19 novel coronavirus has prompted NHL executives to re-align divisions for travel purposes and lumped the Avalanche in the West Division with the four-year-old Vegas franchise in 2021.
The National Hockey League marketing folks who line up teams to play in non-arena outdoor settings like stadiums and along scenic lakes matched up Colorado and Vegas for a Lake Tahoe outdoor game in North Nevada Feb. 20.
Under this pandemic season’s 56-game schedule, teams play games only inside their divisions, which means the Knights and Avs clash eight times this year.
The Avalanche’s team speed, mobile defensemen and skilled players like Nathan MacKinnon (one of the best five players in the NHL) give the Golden Knights a tough foe to cope with. Colorado’s netminder is Philipp Grubauer, one of the best goalies in the league this season along with the VGK’s Marc-Andre Fleury.
The two teams fought to a 2-2 tie after three periods in Denver Saturday afternoon, with the Knights relying on the unlikely goal scorers of defenseman Alec Martinez (4th goal of the season) in the first period and forward William Carrier (2nd goal of the season) in the second period.
The Golden Knights struggled to generate much energy and pressure in these two games in Denver Thursday and Saturday, but the VGK turned up the juice in the third period today and in the three-on-three overtime session when Max Pacioretty poked in the game-winning goal with his fourth OT winning goal this season to give the Knights the 3-2 OT win.
“It takes crazy bounces like that,” VGK forward Alex Tuch said of Pacioretty’s game-winner after the Avalanche led 1-0 ands 2-1 through the first two periods.
After six games this season, the Golden Knights and Avalanche have won three games apiece. The Knights leave Denver still in first place in the West Division.