Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Crushing and brutal. Beyond frustration and maddening.
Golden Knights goaltender Logan Thompson dropped to the ice and was prone on the cold surface for several seconds. Thomas Bordeleau, a mere 20 years old from Houston, had skated in, one-on-one, and faked Thompson out, sliding a puck into an open net in the final round of a shootout Sunday.
It gave the San Jose Sharks an improbable 5-4 shootout win over a Vegas team that is playing catchup for a final playoff spot.
It was a painful ending to the Knights’ final regular season home game with the announced attendance at 18,367.
The Sharks’ Timo Meier scored at the buzzer in the third period, officially with .9 of a second left, to lift San Jose into a 4-4 tie with Vegas after the Knights were up 4-2 in the final stanza after Nic Roy scored 6:35 into the third period. Before Meier notched the equalizer at 19:59, the Knights’ Mark Stone just missed an open net.
But goals by the Sharks’ Nick Bonino and Meier brought San Jose back into a tie and overtime. During the OT, the Knights had a 4-on-3 power play, but failed to score the game-winner.
After a scoreless OT, the game entered the shootout phase.
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How did we get to this crazy ending?
Amid another goaltender soap opera, the Vegas Golden Knights came out flying against the San Jose Sharks Sunday night in yet another “Game 7-style” battle for the playoffs-seeking Knights.
The Golden Knights controlled the early play, but it was the Sharks that struck first with a goal by Tomas Hertl, his 30th of the season.
Vegas converted a power play chance when Chandler Stephenson lifted a close-in rebound up and over San Jose netminder James Reimer.
With VGK coach picking Logan Thompson to start over Robin Lehner, the big 18,000-plus crowd gave the 25-year-old Thompson a huge roar during starting lineup intros.
The Knights can make the playoffs if they win tonight in their final regular season home game and then all three away games in Dallas, Chicago and St. Louis.
After the first period, Vegas and San Jose were tied at one.
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Amid all the angst and controversy surrounding conflicting news about Lehner’s status the Knights are playing with purpose while controlling most of the territory Sunday.
And Thompson has played solidly through the first half of the game, including a key stop on a breakaway.
The Knights were outshooting the Sharks, 21-14, about seven minutes into the second period.
I was watching Pacioretty closely in warmups. He seemed to buzzing around the ice with more intensity today and I predicted a Pacioretty goal.
He drove down the right side in the middle of the period and fired a puck past Reimer for a 2-1 VGK lead.
The Golden Knights were driving to the San Jose net with force and speed and it paid off again — this time, William Carrier converted a pass from Keegan Kolesar to give the Knights a 3-1 lead.
Nick Bonino scored on Thompson and San Jose cut the lead to 3-2 with about a minute to go in the second period.
After two periods: Vegas 3 San Jose 2
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Vegas regained its two-goal lead when William Karlsson set up Nic Roy, who beat Reimer for his 15th of the season for a 4-2 VGK lead about six minutes into the third period.
Vegas could not hold the two-goal third period lead.
Final in a shootout: San Jose 5 Vegas 4
The Knights play Dallas Tuesday, Chicago Wednesday and St. Louis Friday, all on the road as their pursue the LA Kings for a playoff berth in the division and Dallas for a wildcard berth.
PSA