Bittersweet Win For VGK With 4-2 Victory Over Tampa Bay Sunday As Vegas Evaluates Tomas Hertl’s Possible Injury
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Tomas Hertl didn’t notch another hat trick for the Vegas Golden Knights Sunday.
But the 31-year-old former San Jose Sharks center acquired by the VGK a year ago did score a goal in a decisive first period with a wicked wrist shot that found the twine behind Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Hertl’s goal was the second tally in a three-goal first period for the Golden Knights, which took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.
Nic Roy, on the VGK’s power play second unit, did a nice job to redirect a puck past the Tampa Bay goalie to open the scoring.
Jack Eichel scored his 23rd on a blast from the left circle and the VGK had a 3-0 lead after one.
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The Lightning’s Nick Paul fired a nasty wrist shot that beat VGK goaltender Ilya Samsonov in the second period.
Tampa Bay applied the pressure late in the middle stanza and tested Samsonov.
But Vegas skated into the second intermission with a 3-1 lead.
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The VGK’s Mark Stone took a nasty shot to his forehead when a puck struck him during a VGK power play. Pavel Dorofeyev took a shot that caromed off the post and struck Stone.
He lost some blood, but was back out there.
But Hertl’s smile was gone when he missed a breakaway shot and Tampa Bay defenseman Emil Lilleberg sent him into the boards.
The officials looked at the penalty, ruling it was a minor and not a major, triggering boos from the crowd of 17,906.
Hertl left the game and was being examined.
VGK defenseman Nic Hague added an empty-netter for a 4-1 lead and Vegas took the two points, though the potential loss of Hertl lingered heavily.
Nikita Kucherov added a garbage time goal with 1.9 seconds left and Vegas was three-for-three on the four-day homestand.
Vegas is 42-20-8 for 92 points. The next Vegas home game is April 1 when VGK host division rival Edmonton.
