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In a game that the Vegas Golden Knights desperately needed to win to stop the five-game losing streak, the Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 5-3 inside T-Mobile Arena Thursday, March 17.
This marked the first time since Friday, March 4 that Vegas has scored five or more goals in a game and second time in March that it has happened.
“I haven’t had a group face as much adversity as this group had thrown at them,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “They keep showing up and giving us what they have. I’m proud of them.”
With this win, Vegas improves their record to 33-26-4 on the season with 70 points in the Pacific Division standings. The Knights currently sit in fourth place in the division behind Edmonton, Los Angeles and Calgary.
The next time Vegas will hit the ice will be on Saturday, March 19 against the Los Angeles Kings at T-Mobile Arena. Puck drop is set for 1 p.m. PST and can be seen either on AT&T Sportsnet in Las Vegas or on ESPN+ nationwide.
Fans interested in going to the game are encouraged to visit AXS.com for more information.
The game started off on the right foot for Florida who scored the game’s first goal off the stick of left-wing Carter Verhaeghe with just under 12 minutes to play in the first period to give the Panthers the early 1-0 lead.
This would be the only time that Florida held the lead in the game. Center Brett Howden responded with a goal of his own for Vegas with less than three minutes to play in the first period to tie the game at one.
From there, these two teams would trade goals back and forth. Vegas put two goals up in the second period, Florida responded back with a goal near the end of the second period and another goal just past halfway in the third.
The game was only tied for 57 seconds in the third period as center Nicolas Roy put home the go-ahead goal for Vegas with 6:37 left in the game.
Center William Karlsson added the insurance goal with 1:50 left to secure the 5-3 win for Vegas.
Forward Evgenii Dadonov lit the lamp twice for Vegas in the win.
Vegas goalie Logan Thompson recorded 33 saves on 36 attempts for a final save percentage of .917. Thompson was named the third star of the game along with Roy who was named the second star and Dadonov was named the first star of the game.
“It’s a big team win,” Thompson said. “And it’s a big win for the goaltending department.”