First Loss For Golden Knights With Fans In Arena: LA Kings 4 VGK 2 Wednesday
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Well, the Vegas Golden Knights don’t have much time to fret about Wednesday’s stinker of a game against the Los Angeles Kings at T-Mobile Arena.
VGK goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury allowed some soft goals, center Chandler Stephenson threw a cheap-shot elbow into the head of a Kings player worthy of a five-minute misconduct and the Kings left Las Vegas with a 4-2 win over the Golden Knights with 3,950 fans in the building.
While Fleury and Stephenson were melting down against the Kings, the Colorado Avalanche had their way with a 9-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes in Denver and leapfrogged over the Knights into first place in the West Division.
But there’s no time for the VGK to worry about tonight’s sorry performance against LA because the Golden Knights have to regroup and prepare for a game with the Minnesota Wild Thursday evening at T-Mobile Arena.
The LA Kings struck early tonight when Andreas Athanasiou raced to a bouncing puck and swept toward Fleury in a breakaway just a minute and 58 seconds into the game. He deked Flower and went roof with a backhander to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.
The King’s Lias Andersson then poked in a goal off a scrum in front of the VGK net and LA had a 2-0 lead after one period.
*
The Knights got a spark in the second period when William Karlsson scored off a sharp angle 9:41 into the stanza.
The Golden Knights trailed, 2-1, and they appeared primed to climb back in the contest.
Then Fleury allowed two goals that he will want to forget quickly.
He allowed a cheapie to Jaret Anderson-Dolan of LA about three minutes after Karlsson’s goal and then the Kings’ Alex Iafallo went around a Fleury attempted poke check and slipped the puck into an open net at 16:12 and the Knights were in a 4-1 hole after two periods.
The second period ended with Stephenson throwing an elbow and getting a five-minute game misconduct. He was out of the game. With Ryan Reaves suffering a lower-body injury, the Knights were down two forwards.
*
The Golden Knights turned up the juice in period three.
Defenseman Shea Thoedore scored 3:36 into the final stanza and the Knights were down, 4-2. with much of the period left.
They applied the pressure and had lots of scoring chances. The VGJ have enjoyed some comebacks in the final period this 56-game truncated season. But not tonight.
They couldn’t get another puck past LA goalie Cal Petersen.
The Golden Knights outshot LA, 41-30, for the game. But the VGK had 25 penalty minutes to LA’s eight and it was just too much to overcome.
Final: Los Angeles Kings 4 Vegas Golden Knights 2.
