(Publisher’s Note: Today’s game coverage is dedicated to the memory of Joe Pane, a helluva great guy who covered the Golden Knights for the Las Vegas Advisor and wrote a book on the VGK’s first season in 2017-18. Joe died in his sleep earlier this week. Joe spoke with LVSportsBiz,com during in-game podcasts in between periods in VGK Year 1 and was a fellow New Yorker from Brooklyn. Joe enjoyed playing poker, loved his New York Rangers and shared a million stories with all. RIP, Joe.)
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
Well, you don’t see that often.
The Los Angeles Kings vs Vegas Golden Knights game may have pivoted a mere two and a half minutes into the game with a coach’s challenge/official review of a Kings goal.
The VGK coaches thought LA was offsides and challenged the Kings goal.
VGK coach Bruce Cassidy was right.
The play was ruled offsides and the LA Kings goal was nullified.
The Knights then went on to score four goals on six shots against Kings goalie Joonas Korpisalo and skated off the ice after the first 20 minutes with a 4-0 lead over LA, which entered the game trailing the VGK by only four points in the division standings.
The lead is now six points with the Knights’ 5-2 win before 18,404 Thursday evening in Las Vegas.
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Cassidy retooled the lineup and created a third line that scored three goals in the first seven minutes.
Center Chandler Stephenson was flanked by wingers Ivan Barbashev and Phil Kessel and they scored a stunning three goals in less than a minute and a half of ice time.
First it was the 35-year-old Kessel, who kinda looks like Roy from The Office TV show, scoring on a wraparound at 2:54 for his 14th less than a minute after the Kings goal was scrubbed from the scoreboard.
Then it was Barbashev on a one-timer off a gorgeous feed from Stephenson for Barbashev’s 16th and Stephenson’s 47th assist at 3:56.
Stephenson completed the line hat trick when he broke in and flipped the puck past Korpisalo even though the cage was lifted off its mount. Stephenson’s 15th gave the VGK a 3-0 lead only 6:07 into the game. The Kings caused the goal to lift off its moorings so the goal counted.
After LA’s Zack Macewen was whistled for a five-minute boarding major on VGK defenseman Ben “EF” Hutton, which triggered defensive mate Nic Hague to pummel Macewen, the Knights scored a power play goal when Jack Eichel fed Nic Roy at the doorstep for a tap-in goal at 11:23. It was Roy’s 14th.
And there you had it — a giant 4-0 lead after one period in a playoff atmosphere game.
A game where the Knights ripped off four goals in the first period that I remember was when the VGK scored 4 goals in the first period on October 10, 2017 when the Knights dropped four on the Coyotes in the franchise’s first ever regular season home game 9 days after the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Strip.
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This was not LA’s night.
VGK Misfit Jonathan Marchessault picked up a Kings giveaway in the Vegas offensive zone, skated to his right to prepare a shot and fired a rocket into the twine for his 27th. It knocked out Korpisalo and brought in Kings netminder Pheonix Copley
The Knights led, 5-0, and the game was in cruise control.
LA did score twice in the middle stanza. First it was Kings veteran player 35-year-old Anze Kopitar for his 27th and then defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov scored a shortie to cut the VGK lead to 5-2.
But there was no scoring in the third and the VGK improved to 49-22-8 for 106 points, creating a six-point gap between itself and LA, which is stuck on 100 points with three games to go.
Postgame: Cassidy welcomed Hague fighting Macewen for boarding his partner, Hutton. And he was pleased with the team’s forechecking and limiting the Kings on off-man rushes.