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Knights come-from-behind to beat Canucks
It was a special night for both the Vegas Golden Knights and the NHL as the Knights picked up a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday, Nov. 20 on the NHL’s annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night.
The win marked the 11th of the season for Vegas as it closes a six-game homestand 5-1.
“We’ve shown we can win in different ways,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “But one common theme that shows is getting contributions from different guys.”
Currently, the Golden Knights are still awaiting returns for players like left-wing Max Pacioretty, defensemen Shea Theodore and Alec Martinez and center William Karlsson from various injuries.
Center Jonathan Marchessault is currently in COVID-19 protocol and will be eligible to return to the lineup as early as Nov. 27th.
VGK will hit the road for its next game Monday, Nov. 22 at 5 p.m. PST against the St. Louis Blues.
The game can be seen on AT&T Sportsnet and NHL Network.
The game started about as fast as the Blue Jackets could’ve hoped for as they lit the lamp first only forty-five seconds into the game off the stick of center Gustav Nyquist to give Columbus the early 1-0 lead.
That lead would continue to grow as center Alexandre Texier put home his sixth goal of the season while his team was shorthanded. The goal came with 11:18 remaining in the period as the Blue Jackets took a 2-0 lead.
In the second period, the Knights would cut into the two goal deficit when right-wing Keegan Kolesar got his first goal of the season with 12:53 remaining in the second period to make it a 2-1 game.
Vegas had some golden opportunities to tie the game including a wide open net opportunity that clinked off the side of the post for defenseman Alex Pietrangelo late in the period. Plays like this are what makes hockey a game of inches (or even centimeters at times).
Vegas had arguably one of their best third periods of the season and it all started when the team was on the penalty kill.
Similarly to how Columbus had a shorthanded goal in the first period, it would be right-wing Reilly Smith’s turn to score on the man disadvantage with 15:15 remaining in regulation to tie the game up at two.
The break in the game came by way of a go-ahead goal from center Mattias Janmark who scored his first goal of the season when his team needed him the most with 6:07 left to play.
That goal gave the VGK a 3-2 lead and proved to be the game winning goal as there would be no more scoring the rest of the way.