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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — He was the feisty, undersized symbol of the Vegas Golden Knights’ first seven years, showing tough grit, delivering clutch goals and winning the respect of VGK coaches from Gerard Gallant to Bruce Cassidy.
The Golden Knights, in their final home game of the regular season, put together an emotional and touching video to honor the memories of Jonathan Marchessault who returned to T-Mobile Arena for the first time since joining the Nashville Predators for the 2024-25 season.
Marchessault was quite the competitor during his Las Vegas tenure. And he blossomed into a clutch goal-scorer, winning the MVP of the 2023 NHL playoffs when Vegas garnered the Stanley Cup championship.
Vegas fans gave Marchessault a long standing ovation and roared with love from the memories of the original Misfit after the video tribute in the first period.
The Golden Knights, needing two points to clinch the Pacific Division title and the Western Conference’s number two seed, thoroughly outplayed Nashville in the first period.
But after 12 minutes, the Predators has one shot and one goal while the VGK has a dozen shot and zero goals. Vegas outshot Nashville in the first period, 15-5, but trailed the Predators, 1-0, after the first period.
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The Golden Knights’ onslaught continued in the second period with goals by Brett Howden, Nic Roy and Alexander Holtz (power play) giving Vegas a 3-1 lead.
Nashville’s goalie, Justus Annunen, did not have must of a chance on any of the Vegas scores a the VGK moved the puck nicely on all three goals.
The Knights notched a hat trick on six shots in the middle stanza as Nashville looked uninspired.
Vegas took the two-goal lead into the second intermission.
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In the third, however, the Knights lacked intensity and Marchessasult (his 20th) and Marc Del Gazo scored goals and the Nashville rallied for a 3-3 tie.
But with only about two minutes left, Noah Hanifin blasted in the go-ahead goal and Ivan Barbashev scored an empty-netter to clinch the Vegas 5-3 win and the Pacific Division championship.
Vegas has 107 points and will have the number two seed in the conference.
Howden, postgame:
PROMO