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For the first time in a week and a half, the Vegas Golden Knights found victory as they defeated the San Jose Sharks, 4-1, in San Jose Sunday, Feb. 20.
“I liked a lot of our 5-on-5 play,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “But I thought we defended much better than we did the other night which is where it starts for us.”
With the win, the team now moves to 29-18-4 on the year with 62 points. Vegas still trails Calgary by four points in the Pacific Division standings.
This game marked the first of two games on the road for the team before returning home Saturday, Feb. 26 for a rematch against the Colorado Avalanche.
The next time the Golden Knights hit the ice will be on Friday, Feb. 25 as they will face the Arizona Coyotes in Glendale, Arizona.
Sunday was a historical day for the Golden Knights in a couple different ways.
For starters, center Jack Eichel scored his first goal as a member of the Golden Knights organization making him the 56th skater to record a goal for the franchise. He also picked up an assist en route to being named the second star of the game.
“It’s obviously been a long time since I scored a goal,” Eichel said. “It’s a good feeling. It’s part of my game to chip in offensively.”
With the win on Sunday, Logan Thompson became the seventh different goalie to record a win for the Golden Knights.
He finished with 35 saves on 36 attempts for a final save percentage of .972, being named the first star of the game for his efforts.
“He’s been battling for us,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said about Thompson. “We wanted to make sure we put a good effort out in front of him.”
The final star of the game was given to San Jose’s Nick Bonino who scored the Shark’s only goal.
For the second time in as many games, left-wing Max Pacioretty also found the back of the net as he now has three goals in the past two games and is currently one of the hottest scorers on the Vegas roster.