After Wild Opening 20 Minutes and Six Goals, Vegas Shuts Down Tampa and Defeats Lightning, 5-4, Saturday Before 18,317
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
When powerful Tampa Bay comes to Las Vegas, all I could think about is that the Lightning and Golden Knights should have played in Stanley Cup Finals in VGK Seasons 1, 3 and 4.
The Lightning choked in Games 6 and 7 against Washington in the Eastern Conference Final before the Caps polished off the VGK in 5 games to win the Cup in 2018. Then, the VGK lost in semifinals to Dallas and Montreal in 2020 and 2021 — years that the Lightning won the Cup over the Stars and Canadiens.
So tonight, the Bolts and Knights decided to pack a whole game’s worth of action into the first period as Vegas scored a stunning four goals in the first 20 minutes against Tampa’s all-world goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and led, 4-2, after one.
Here’s your six goals:
VGK fourth line winger Brett Howden scored a mere seven seconds after Tampa’s Vladislav Namestnikov lit the lamp and it was 1-1.
Then VGK vet Jonathan Marchessault scored two of the Knights’ next three goals and Vegas went into the first intermission with a two-goal lead.
VGK defenseman Shea Theodore also scored for Vegas, while Tampa’s future Hall-of-Famer, Steven Samkos blasted in a power play goal from the Ovechkin spot at the left circle for his 506th career goal.
There was so much more energy and buzz in the Big Ice House by the Strip tonight compared to Thursday’s VGK 2-1 win over San Jose when VGK winger William Carrier scored the winning goal with only 16.6 seconds left in the third period.
The frenetic scoring of period one calmed down in the middle stanza. The Lightning’s veteran, Corey Perry, who still has spring in his step at age 37, scored his 11th of the season. That was the sole goal of the second period.
After two periods: Vegas 4 Tampa 3.
In period three, there was a playoff feel to the game. There was no scoring until the VGK’s Nic Roy scored an empty-netter.
Former VGKer Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored a Bolts goal with less than ten seconds left in the game and Vegas notched a 5-4 win over last year’s Cup runner-up.
