Too Many VGK Puck Control Mistakes Against Minnesota Wild In Game 2 Result In Wild 5-2 Win Tuesday Before Announced 18,311; Series Tied, 1-1
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Well, the highlight for the Vegas Golden Knights in their Game 2 loss to the Minnesita Wild Tuesday was the first five minutes, when the VGK dominated play.
But they failed to notch a goal.
Then the Wild countered, with their stars Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy leading the way with three goals in the first period and another one in the second period. And Kaprizov’s empty-netter sealed Minnesota’s 5-2 win in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs’ opening round Tuesday.
Kaprizov’s long, looping pass to Boldy sprung the 24-year-old American on a breakaway that led to the game’s first goal after Vegas came out strong. Boldy remarked after the game about that picture-perfect pass from Kaprizov: “That may have been the best pass I’ve ever seen.”
The Wild enjoyed a 4-0 lead midway through the middle stanza.
Vegas’ Noah Hanifin beat the Wild’s goalie, Filip Gustavsson, to chip a goal off the Minnesota lead.
VGK center Tomas Hertl scored from in front off a pass from defenseman Alex Pietrangelo in the third and the Knights were in striking distance, down, 4-2, with most of the third period to be played.
In the end, Minnesota cashed in on several plays where VGK mismanaged the puck and the Best-of-7 series is now tied at a game apiece.
Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy summed it up, using this term several times in his postgame presser: “We didn’t take care of the puck.”
It was a rough game for VGK defenseman Shea Theodore, who had some puck control issues.
Cassidy on Theodore’s mistakes: “It wasn’t his night . . . we have to do a better job putting out the fires to pick him up.”
Vegas’ top line of leading scorer Jack Eichel and wingers Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev also lacked offensive juice. That prompted Cassidy to observe, “They are elite world-class players and they got to get going.”
Among the 18,310 fans in the arena was Lauresa Burgess, an EMT who had just moved to Las Vegas in Sept. 2017, less than a month before Oct. 1 when a gunman killed 58 people at a country music concert on the Strip.
Burgess submitted a montage of family photos as part of a VGK ticket contest and won two free tickets to Game 2.
“October 1 tore the community apart that inaugural season and the way the team pulled Las Vegas together was huge,” Burgess told LVSportsBiz.com between periods one and two.
The VGK have given away playoff game tickets at watch parties in the past, but this time the NHL team had a recent “Rise for the Realm” contest where the Knights invited 25,000 fans signed up to a LMK VGK text alert system to submit photos showing how they would Rise for the Realm.
The two winners would each receive two lower bowl tickets for a total of four for Vegas vs Minnesota Game 2.
The contest ran for only 12 hours from 12:30 PM to 12:30 AM Tuesday and drew 800 submissions. And on the morning of Game 2, VGK staff had to pick the winners. At 10:30AM, two lucky fans were picked to each garner a pair of seats that were valued at $400 each.
“It was a hard task. There were so many good submissions,” VGK Chief Marketing Officer Eric Tosi said.
The Knights are handing out three pairs of home game tickets during the two upcoming watch parties at the Cosmopolitan (Game 3) Thursday and Lee’s Family Forum (Game 4) Saturday, Tosi said.
Minnesota’s win tonight means there will be a Game 5 here in a week next Tuesday.
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