Golden Stroll To Arena: Golden Knights Launch Home Season Thursday; Vegas Blanks Chicago Thanks To Thompson’s Stellar Goaltending, 1-0
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Story by Alan Snel Photos by Omer Khan
Just the Facts: Vegas Golden Knights 1 Chicago Blackhawks 0
Storyline: Logan Thompson starred in goal and Paul Cotter scored the goal
Attendance: 18,467
Shots on Goal: Vegas 37 Chicago 25
Quote: “We played the way we wanted to, we were able to take a lead. Couldn’t extend it unfortunately… If you want to be a really good team, you extend leads when you get the opportunity.” — VGK coach Bruce Cassidy
Next Game: Saturday against the Kraken in Seattle
Postgame: Crowd of media around Paul “Welcome Back” Cotter
They returned the gold carpet to the T-Mobile Arena for today’s Vegas Golden Knights home-opener and the players like Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith and Brayden McNabb strolled amid the adoring fans.
Let’s face it — the carpet event did not have the emotional juice and intense fan buzz of Years 1 and 2. But then again, can anything match the Unicorn Year of the Golden Knights’ inaugural season?
So, they VGK folks tried the best they could. Mark Shunock, the popular VGK game host inside the T-Mobile Arena venue, introduced the mascots of the Golden Knights and the Triple-A Silver Knights, and the parade of players came soon after that.
When in doubt, it’s always safe business strategy to insert “golden” into any catch phrase with a team named the Golden Knights. So, in Year 6 the VGK have declared it “The Golden Age.” It is, after all, a golden age of sports development in Las Vegas.
*
VGK goalie Logan Thompson shined for the Knights, standing tall with two terrific saves on Chicago Blackhawks breakaways in the first period.
Thompson also made some nice saves when the VGK were down a man because of a penalty on Brett Howden late in period one.
Chicago outshot Vegas, 11-9, in a scoreless first period.
*
Welcome Back, kid.
Paul Cotter scored the games first goal when he rifled a shot from the right side past Chicago’s Alex Stalock and the VGK had a 1-0 lead midway through period two.
Thompson was outstanding. He walled Chicago in the home-opener and that was your final score: Vegas 1 Chicago.
Thompson: “It was a lot of fun . . . Overall I’m happy with the two points.”
