Golden Knights Hope To Replicate Islanders’ Game 6 Result and Force Game 7 Against Montreal
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The big screens at the Red Rock hotel-casino sportsbook showed the Dodgers-Padres game and next-door in the poker room a guy is the navy blue Tampa Bay Lightning hockey jersey was leaving and tapping his cell phone. The jersey actually had “BOLTS” running diagonally on the front with the name “Stamkos” on the upper back of the jersey back and the number 91 on the sleeves.
“They blew it,” said the guy, standing about six-foot, three inches and in a dour mood.
The Lightning, indeed, were about 10 minutes from closing out the New York Islanders in the NHL semifinals and heading to the Stanley Cup Final. The Bolts, as they are sometimes called in Tampa, led 2-1 in the third and final period when the Islanders’ Scott Mayfield shot a puck from a severe angle past Lightning goaltender Andrei Vaslevskiy and tied the score at two with 8:44 left in the third period.
And then in overtime, Anthony Beauvillier stole a pass in front of the Lightning goal and snapped a wrist shot that zipped by Vasilevskiy and the Islanders had themselves a 3-2 OT win at the rowdy 13,000-seat Coliseum on Long Island after getting annihilated, 8-0, by the Lightning two days earlier in Tampa.
The Islanders and Lightning will play Game 7 at Amalie Arena in Tampa’s Channelside district in downtown on Friday.
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One night earlier in an arena just off the Strip in Las Vegas, the favored Golden Knights were clearly outplayed by the upstart Montreal Canadiens, which defeated the VGK, 4-1, before a crowd of just under 18,000 at T-Mobile Arena.
The Knights’ feeble performance means Vegas will play for season survival Thursday in Montreal, where the team with the lowest number of wins in the 56-game pandemic season can be the first team to clinch a spot in the Cup Final after Tampa failed to do so tonight.
The Knights won the first game of the Final 4 semifinal series, 4-1, but have lost three of the last four games to Montreal. The Golden Knights won 40 out of 56 games during the regular season compared to the Canadiens’ 24. But Montreal has been the superior team in the semis after VGK defeated Minnesota in seven games and Colorado in six.
The Knights are 10-8 in the playoffs, while Montreal is 11-5.
A 12th Canadiens win tomorrow knocks the Knights out of the playoffs.
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The Golden Knights will hold the VGK vs MTL Game 6 watch party very close to their headquarters Thursday.
It’s the building just a few feet away from City National Arena — the Las Vegas Aviators’ ballpark right next-door to the VGK training center and headquarters in Summerlin off Pavilion Center Drive.
The game will be broadcast on the giant scoreboard and fans can sit in seats or on the grass.
It’s $5 to get in. Game is 5 PM Vegas time.
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