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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Less than four minutes into the final period, VGK winger Mitch Marner had the puck on his stick with open ice and lost the puck.
Then, the Golden Knights’ foe today on Black Friday, the Montreal Canadiens, countered, with center Jake Evans slipping behind the Vegas defense, receiving a pass and beating Knights goalie Akira Schmid on a breakaway for a 3-0 Montreal lead.
It was game over.
The Golden Knights mounted no comeback and lost, 4-1, to Montreal. Mark Stone scored the lone Vegas goal with 4:44 left in the final period. Juraj Slafkovsky scored an empty-net goal for the 4-1 final.
Montreal goaltender Samuel Montembeault played well as the Canadiens appeared to be the hungrier team on the ice.
“We’re chasing a lot of games,” VGK coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We knew this month would be difficult.”
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Montreal’s Slafkovsky delivered a wizard-like pass from the left corner to Zachary Bolduc at the right side of the VGK net and Bolduc deposited the puck past VGK goalie Akira Schmid for a 1-0 Montreal lead. It was a long delayed penalty when Slafkovsky whizzed the puck past four VGK players’ sticks in the first period to set up Montreal’s first tally.
Of that first goal, Cassidy said, “We needed better awareness.”
Then in period two, Cole “Holden” Caufield fired a precise laser shot past Schmid from a sharp angle and the Habs advanced their lead to 2-0.
During the first two periods, the Golden Knights enjoyed a 22-11 advantage in shots. But even with that two-to-one shots edge, the Knights did not look sharp on offense and there were not a lot of Grade A scoring chances in those 22 shots.
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The Knights host the San Jose Sharks Saturday at 7 PM.
The VGK fell to ten wins and six regulation time losses and eight extra time losses.
Tonight’s attendance was reported at 17,739.
PSA