Knights Use Rooks To Checkmate Minnesota, 3-2, Thursday

November 11, 2021November 12, 2021 Alan Snel Cam Talbot, Jon Merrill, Jonas Rondbjerg, Jonathan Marchessault, Laurent Brossoit, Paul Cotter, Pete DeBoer, Reilly Smith

Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

Just the facts: Vegas Golden Knights 3 Minnesota Wild 2

Golden Knights goal scorers: Paul Cotter, Jonas Rondbjerg, Jonathan Marchessault

Attendance: 18,267

VGK record: 8-6

Trend: Knights start 1-4, win seven of nine for their 8-6 record

Another injury: VGK defenseman Alec Martinez takes skate blade to face. VGK coach Pete DeBoer called it an “ugly cut.” Martinez needed more than 50 stitches to close the wound.

Quote: “I coached the New Jersey Devils for four years.” — DeBoer, when asked postgame by LVSportsBiz.com about the challenge of coaching a team without offensive firepower in grind-it-out games.

The Knights received goals from two unexpected players in period one for tonight’s VGK-Wild game.

Both Paul Cotter and Jonas Rondbjerg scored their first career NHL goals as the Knights led, 2-0, after the first period. After the game, Rondbjerg said he will keep his puck in his room, while Cotter said he will keep it with other first goal pucks on his mantle.

Minnesota, playing the second game of a back-to-back, looked flat in the first 20 minutes, mustering only five shots on goal against VGK netminder Laurent Brossoit, spelling starter Robin Lehner.

After one period: VGK 2 Wild 0

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In period two, the Knights did a great job at killing a 5-on-3 to preserve their 2-0 lead with about five minutes left in the middle stanza.

“We take a ton of pride in it,” VGK defenseman Brayden McNabb said of the Knights penalty kill. “It’s been off-and-on as of late and we wanted to fix it. I thought we did a great job tonight. LB played awesome and made some big saves.”

Brossoit was rock-solid in stoning the Wild during the penalty kill.

And then the Misfits struck with seconds left in period two. Reilly Smith fed Jonathan Marchessault, who buried the puck past Wild goalie Cam Talbot with only seven seconds left in the middle stanza.

After two periods: VGK 3 Wild 0

Attendance and ticket info:

The Golden Knights are averaging 18,012 fans a game, good for 103.7 percent of arena capacity, which is 17,367. That’s tops in the National Hockey League.

As of 12 noon, the cheapest ticket on the VGK Ticket Exchange for today’s VGK vs Wild game is $35.

What’s newsworthy is that the Golden Knights’ own ticket re-seller, Pogo, sent texts just yesterday promoting “limited number of fixed seats starting at $49.”

There have been the political Brandon chants during Golden Knights home games. Plus a Trump flag was displayed inside the arena — here’s a photo posted by a VGK fan:

It’s unclear whether the arena or the Knights took any action about this political flag situation. The Knights’ new PR head, Nate Ewall, said the VGK follow the arena policy. And here it is:

“Signs, Flags, or Banners exceeding 11” x 17” or attached to a pole/stick. Signs must be relevant to event. Signs may not contain or display obscene or offensive language and/or pictures as determined by T-Mobile Arena Management. Management reserves the right to prohibit or remove a sign or banner at any time.”

Ewall said the team has no public comment and will address the issue internally.

The fan who photographed the two men holding the Trump flag told LVSportsBiz.com it was before Tuesday’s VGK-Seattle game and that he didn’t see any ushers or security doing anything about it.

Some reaction on Twitter to the Trump flag:

Jon Merrill on his scooter with Nate Schmidt in a scene to open the video.

Former Golden Knights defenseman Jon Merrill returns to the arena tonight. He was a down-to-earth likable fella for the VGK before going to Detroit, Montreal and now the Wild. He’s still remembered in this place. Check out this fan.