Electric Playoff Vibe At T-Mobile Arena, But 18,168 Watch Golden Knights Lose Again In OT/Shootout To Powerful Colorado, 6-5, Saturday
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — There are those regular season games that have that extra buzz, a sense of excitement that’s a prelude to playoff life in the spring.
The Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights hosted the Colorado Avalanche with their league-leading 61 points on 27 wins, only two regulation losses and seven OT/shootout losses.
The game lived up its hype as the Avalanche took care of business in a shootout after an electric overtime session and came away with a 6-5 SO win over the Golden Knights. Colorado’s superstar center, Nathan MacKinnon, scored the decisive shootout goal against VGK goalie Carter Hart.
After the game, VGK coach Bruce Cassidy said in his presser that there were “lots of reasons to be excited as a fan” and it was too bad the Knights could not close the game leading, 5-4, late in the third period after scoring five even-strength goals from unlikely scorers like Alexander Holtz, Ben “EF” Hutton and Colton Sissons.
Cassidy called the Colorado Avalanche the “class of the league” and “they’re clearly a better team.”
It was a good effort by the Knights, who were missing key players like center Jack Eichel, defenseman Shea Theodore and center William Karlsson to injuries.
The Knights opened the scoring with a goal by Holtz, his first of the season, in period one before a high-scoring second stanza got this big crowd roaring.
Ivan Barbashev scored his 12th to give the VGK a 2-0 lead early in the second period before Colorado countered with goals by defenseman Samuel Girard (third of the season) and Martin Necas, his 17th.
The Avs had tied the game at two apiece before the VGK countered with their own two goals.
Hutton scored his fifth to give Vegas a 3-2 lead and then Original Misfit Reilly Smith fed Brett Howden on a deft pass and Howden redirected the puck past Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood to give Vegas 4-2 lead after two periods.
The VGK resilience took a hit when the Avs responded with two goals in the third period to deadlock the score at four.
Necas scored again. And then MacKinnon mopped up an easy goal in front of the net for his 31st goal of the season, putting him on pace to score 70 goals this season.
A VGK power play nearly netted the go-ahead goal by Braeden Bowman, who was at the doorstep of Colorado’s goal. But Wedgewood walled Bowman’s attempts.
It was 4-4 with five minutes to go in regulation before fourth-line center Sissons broke out with his line and took a short pass before zooming in on Wedgewood and deking the Avs goalie to slide the puck into the net for a 5-4 lead with four minutes left.
Colorado forced OT with a goal by Artturi Lehkonen (14) with only 1:57 left and it was 5-5 after 60 minutes.
Vegas, with its ten overtime/shootout losses, was off to extra time.
Colorado won the shootout, 2-1, with MacKinnon beating Hart and Wedgewood stopping Holtz in the fourth round.
Final: Colorado 6 Vegas 5 in the SO.
Vegas is now 17-8-11 for 45 points. That’s 11 overtime/shootout losses out of 36 games for VGK. The Knights play Minnesota Monday.
PSA
