Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
By the looks of the Vegas Golden Knights’ dominating start over Arizona Friday evening, it’s hard to believe the Coyotes actually sit in a playoff position in the West Division.
After 14 minutes, the Knights were outshooting Arizona, 22-3, and enjoyed a comfortable 4-0 lead behind goaltender Robin Lehner. The VGK jumped on Arizona with goals by Jonathan Marchessault, William Carrier, Keegan Kolesar and Reilly Smith. In fact, the Knights had that 4-0 lead before the first period was even half over — reminiscent of the four-goals-in-nine-minutes performance against the same Arizona Coyotes in the emotional, first home game in Golden Knights history on Oct. 10, 2017.
The Knights’ Chandler Stephenson piled on in the second period with a goal to make it 5-0, his first tally after a three-game suspension for elbowing against the Los Angeles Kings.
The Coyotes scored in the final minute in the middle stanza on a power play to get on the scoreboard. The Knights still had a four-goal cushion, 5-1, after two periods.
As usual, the Golden Knights announced attendance at 3,905, 22 percent of capacity. VGK majority owner Bill Foley said the four-year-old NHL franchise wants to up capacity to 28 percent and then aim for 50 percent for the playoffs, which are scheduled to begin in May. Here are a few of those fans.
The Golden Knights were cruising with a 5-1 lead early in the third period when Arizona struck twice to make a 5-3 game.
Smith snapped a wrist shot for his second goal of the game and the Knights were up, 6-3, before the Coyotes responded with a goal, cutting the VGK lead to 6-4.
Arizona had reached fourth place in the West, with St. Louis sliding. But the Blues recently knocked off the Golden Knights Wednesday and wiped out Minnesota Friday to inch toward that fourth and final division playoff slot.
VGK forward Max Pacioretty notched an empty-netter to round out the scoring to the 7-4 win for Vegas.
The Knights are 26-11-2 and trail Colorado (27-9-4) by four points with a game at hand. Arizona (19-17-5) lead St, Louis by a single point for the fourth and final playoff berth.
Friday’s scores:
Even the Henderson Silver Knights town crier character made a cameo tonight, announcing a Golden Knights goal scorer and jokes in his medieval-style talking accent. His Silver Knights lost to the Bakersfield Condors, 5-3, Friday night at Mechanics Bank Arena in California.
The Knights and Coyotes play in Las Vegas again Sunday at 1 PM.