San Jose’s Marleau Makes NHL Ironman History For Most Games Played Monday, But VGK Pulls Out 3-2 Shootout Win Behind Stone, Lehner
Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
He made his NHL debut on Oct. 1, 1997 for the San Jose Sharks and in Las Vegas Monday night 41-year-old Patrick Marleau kept on skating, taking his first shift at puck drop after swapping words with Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty, who began the game opposite the skating ironman.
And a minute and 20 seconds into the Sharks-Knights contest, 3,950 fans in both gold and teal paid tribute to Marleau for setting the NHL record for playing in the most number of games: 1,768. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was on a video lauding Marleau’s skills, conditioning and dedication as his family watched from a suite in T-Mobile Arena.
The NHL pointed out that, “Marleau has skated alongside or against over 3,000 different NHL players, equating to more than one-third of all players in League history.”
These are two teams, the Sharks and Golden Knights, that have built up lots of bad blood in a short hockey rivalry. But on Monday night in Las Vegas, the VGK shared the spotlight with a player who is a sure-bet future Hall-of-Famer.
There will always be a place for guys like Marleau, a worker with talent who comes to work day after day after day. He has piled up 566 goals and 630 assists after being picked as the number two overall draft selection by the Sharks in 1997. Today, Marleau surpassed NHL legend Gordie Howe for most games played.
To understand the historic context, Howe held the most games played record since Nov. 26, 1961 when he passed Ted Lindsay (999 games played) and became the first player to appear in at least 1,000 career NHL regular-season games. It was an NHL record that stood for nearly six decades.
“Great night for Patrick Marleau and his family,” VGK coach Pete DeBoer said after the game.
Tonight’s game against San Jose was the Knights’ third in four days and it showed. There was not much jump in the VGK game in the first period, as the Sharks grabbed a 1-0 lead after the first 20 minutes thanks to a goal by San Jose defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov, his second of the season.
“We were on fumes,” DeBoer said. “We didn’t have much left in the tank.” It was the Knights’ third game in four days, their sixth game in nine days.
And a mere 29 seconds into the middle stanza, the Sharks grabbed a 2-0 lead on an unassisted goal by center Noah Gregor.
The Golden Knights began to pick up the pace and they converted a power play goal to cut the lead to 2-1. VGK captain notched his 16th goal of the season tipping in a shot from the point by Shea Theodore.
The Knights controlled most of the play in period two and tested San Jose goalie Martin Jones, who stopped 24 of 25 VGK shots through two periods.
After two periods, San Jose 2 Vegas 1
The Knights controlled the third period and Stone’s second power play goal of the game locked the score at two.
William Karlsson nearly scored in the final seconds of regulation,, San Jose swept the puck away from the goal line and off to to overtime the game went.
The Knights had some nice chances to win in OT, but San Jose goalie Jones denied the VGK.
And then it was shootout time.
VGK goalie Robin Lehner stopped all three San Jose shooters, including Marleau. He made a sweet leg save to keep San Jose off the board in the shootout.
And Alex Tuch scored in the shootout for Vegas and the Knights squeezed out a second point out of this historic April 19 NHL game. It was the Knights’ seventh win a row.
Final: Vegas Golden Knights 3 San Jose Sharks 2
The Knights moved into first place two points ahead of Colorado, but the Avalanche have played two less games because the team is sidelined until Thursday because of COVID-19 problems.
Monday’s scores:
