Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
This time, Shea Theodore did not miss.
The Vegas defenseman scored the VGK game-winning goal with only 32.5 seconds left in the third period and the Vegas Golden Knights woke up just in time to tie the game and then win it in the final period against a pesky Philadelphia Flyers team at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday.
Several minutes before Theodore fired the puck past Flyers goalie Carter Hart, VGK forward Paul “Welcome Back” Cotter made a gorgeous move to score the highlight-reel tying goal to knot the game at two.
The late-game heroics gave the NHL’s defending champs their seventh consecutive win to start the season. That’s an NHL record.
“Thanks guys for having our backs,” Cotter told the crowd of 17,717 after the game.
Flyers head coach John Tortorella is known for installing a style of defense that slows down rushes by the opposition and clogging the slot, VGK coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game.
He said the Knights began doing the dirty work in front of the Philadelphia cage to pull out the win with the Cotter and Theodore goals.
The Knights opened the scoring in the first period with a goal by Ivan Barbashev, when he shoveled in a rebound past Hart.
But Philly responded with a rebound goal by Noah Cates later in the period that tied the game at one.
Then Flyers winger Cam Atkinson threw a weak backhander toward VGK goalie Logan Thompson that the Vegas netminder flubbed, allowing the puck to carom off his blocker and into the net. It was an embarrassing goal and bad mistake, but Cassidy credited Thompson with battling back to make several crucial stops in the second period to not allow the Flyers to score a third goal.
Cassidy also said Cotter was mentally into the game even after the Golden Knights coach rolled out only three lines in the second period to try and jumpstart the offense in a nationally-televised game that started at 8 PM instead of the normal 7 PM start time.
“A young player can’t be affected by every mistake,” Cassidy pointed out.
After the game, Theodore half-joked that it was nice to see a fancy goal scored by Cotter in a game when Cotter has been known to perform the move during practice.
Cotter mentioned the team stayed resilient to pull out the NHL record seventh win in a row to start a new season by a defending Stanley Cup champion.
VGK defenseman Brayden McNabb, Theodore’s defensive partner, said the team just kept on pushing to get the win.
The Golden Knights play the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday here in Las Vegas at the unusual time of 3 PM.
It was a special night for the NHL. All 32 teams were in action engaged in 16 games.