Golden Knights Unleash Seven-Goal Barrage In Final 23 Minutes To Cruise By Nashville, 7-2, Saturday; VGK On Seven-Game Win Streak
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Nashville rolled into town, matching the NHL’s two sunbelt entertainment markets here in Las Vegas Saturday.
It came just two days after Vegas’ dramatic 6-5 OT comeback win over Toronto and three days after the Knights defeated the Los Angeles Kings in another overtime victory in downtown LA.
The Knights played their third game in four nights Saturday and led the Predators, 2-1, after two periods. Vegas padded its lead by another five goals in the third period for a 7-1 lead behind the steady goaltending by VGK netminder Akira Schmid. Nashville added a late goal for the 7-2 Vegas win before a VGK-reported attendance of 17,988.
Schmid postgame:
A game against Nashville means seeing two old VGK players from Vegas’ 2023 championship team — forward Jonathan Marchesssault and defenseman Nic Hague.
It took more than 37 minutes for the Golden Knights to light the red lamp and it came from an unexpected source — Alexander Holtz, the 23-year-old from Sweden who scored his second of the season to lock the game at one apiece.
Holtz postgame:
Then VGK defenseman Shea Theodore snapped a wrist shot into the upper corner of the cage past Nashville netminder Justus Annunen with about a minute and a half to go in the middle stanza to give Vegas a 2-1 lead heading into the second intermission.
Early in the third, Mitch Marner fed Pavel Dorofeyev, who deposited his 20th goal of the season behind Annunen for a 3-1 Vegas lead.
Coach Bruce Cassidy has placed Marner and Dorofeyev together along with original Misfit Reilly Smith on the VGK second line and Marner and Dorofeyev appear to be developing some nice chemistry.
Speaking of chemistry, Jack Eichel fed Mark Stone for Vegas’ fourth goal and the Knights had a solid 4-1 lead midway through the third period. It was Stone’s 18th of the season with Eichel piling up those assists with his 39th on the Stone goal.
The floodgates were open as VGK fourth-liner Cole Reinhardt scored his second of the season and Marner added his 12th of the campaign and Vegas was cruising to the finish line with a 6-1 lead.
Keegan Kolesar took a nice pass from line mate Tomas Hertl to deke Annunen and slide his third goal of the season and second in two games into the net for a 7-1 lead.
Kolesar postgame:
It’s hard to believe Vegas was trailing, 1-0, with less than three minutes to go in the second period before unleashing a seven-goal barrage is less than 23 minutes to skate away with the runaway win.
Nashville’s Filip Forsberg added a garbage time goal to complete the scoring.
Final: Vegas 7 Nashville 2
Vegas is now 24-11-12 for 60 points and plays Philadelphia Monday. VGK lead Edmonton by four points in the race for the division’s top spot.
PSA
