VGK Rally For Four Consecutive Goals To Defeat Kings, 4-2, In LA Monday
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The LA Kings are always a pain in the butt for the Vegas Golden Knights. It seems like every game is tight. Even when the Knights swept LA, 4-0, in the NHL playoffs in VGK Season 1 in 2018, every game was a rough battle.
So naturally, things worked out that way Monday in downtown Los Angeles where the Kings jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the Knights. LA’s crafty ol’ dude, Anze Kopitar, converted a terrific feed from Kings line mate Dustin Brown and LA led, 2-0, midway through the second period.
But on a day that the Golden Knights acquired Mattias Janmark from Chicago, and forwards Ryan Reaves and Keegan Kolesar didn’t even make the trip from Las Vegas to Southern California because of injuries, the VGK found a way to skate their way back into the contest.
Knights forward Nic Roy made a nice move to beat LA netminder Cal Petersen at 14:20 for his third of the season.
And then VGK captain Mark Stone deked Petersen on a penalty kill to score a short-handed goal, his 13th, to lock the game at two with only 27 seconds left in the middle stanza.
The pressure was on because by the intermission between periods two and three, the Knights players knew Colorado had defeated Arizona, 4-2, in Denver and were up by six points in the standings over Vegas in the battle for the West Division’s top rung.
Here’s Stone, post-game:
The Knights had what they say was a weird fourth line, with Dylan Coghlan moving from defense to the forward position, while Tomas Jurco got a promotion from the Henderson Silver Knights to play with Roy at center.
By the third period, the Knights forged ahead with a goal by Alex Tuch to take a 3-2 lead at the 4:35 mark of period three. It was his 14th goal of the pandemic season.
Knights fans celebrated back in Las Vegas.
At 8:22, VGK forward Max Pacioretty scored his 300th career goal, a power play tally, off assists from Shea Theodore and Stone. It upped the Knights lead to 4-2. It was Pacioretty’s 20th.
VGK Robin Lehner, in an every-other-game rotation with Marc-Andre Fleury, picked up the win to go 9-1-2. The Knights finished the night four points behind Colorado with a game at hand. VGK improved to 28-11-2.
