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By Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Finally, major league hockey was back in Las Vegas Friday.
The Vegas Golden Knights, the NHL’s division leader with the least number of points with 72, hosted the 82-point but Central Division third place Minnesota Wild.
Before the game, there was a feel-good moment when Minnesota’s U.S. Olympians, Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes, joined VGK American Olympians Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifan for a U.S. gold medal recognition at center ice.
Then, the five Americans skated to their respective benches and Minnesota and Vegas launched into a key Western Conference match. The Knights were bit by the injury bug as forward Mark Stone, a member of the Silver-winning Canadian team, was still out with an upper body injury.
It was a scoreless first period, with Vegas goalie Akira Schmid getting the start over Adin Hill.
But then the game settled into a pattern we have seen all season. The Golden Knights fall behind entering the third and then made a big push in the final period.
Vegas fell victim to a brutal three-minute stretch when Minnesota’s Mats Zuccarello scored at 5:18 on a sloppy Hanifin turnover, Zach Bogosian scored at 8:07 and Michael McCarron scored 18 seconds later.
“The first one was a tough one,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said at his postgame presser, noting a miscommunication on the turnover.
The VGK, one of the NHL’s best third period teams, pushed back in the final stanza with Eichel threading a gorgeous pass to Pavel Dorofeyev on the right doorstep on the powerplay to cut into the Minnesota lead at 3-1.
The Wild sealed the win with Vladimir Tarasenko beating Schmid to make it 4-1 with about four minutes left.
The announced crowd of 18,116 included lots of Minnesota fans, who walked out the building with smiles after the Wild’s 4-2 win over Vegas after Mitch Marner scored his 18th goal for Vegas with about three minutes to go in the game.
Cassidy said his team is going to have to squeeze out 3-2 and 2-1 wins. Vegas is now 29 wins with 20 regulation losses and 14 overtime/shootout losses for 72 points. By the end of the night Vegas was in second place in the division, trailing the Anaheim Ducks by a point with Anaheim (73 points) playing one less game.
Vegas plays division rival Edmonton Sunday at 6:30 PM.