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One of the original Vegas Golden Knights, Jonathan Marchessault, saved the day for the home team as he found a puck in the neutral zone, turned on the jets, and broke away from a Philadelphia defender to put home a game-winning goal in overtime to win 2-1 over the Flyers Friday, Dec. 9.
“We had to find a way to win the hockey game tonight and we did,” he said. “We stuck with it. It wasn’t the prettiest 60 minutes, but good teams find a way to win and sometimes you get lucky breaks like that.”
Marchessault’s overtime goal is his seventh overtime winner of his career and ties defenseman Shea Theodore for the most in franchise history. He is also on a four-game goal streak which is the longest of his career.
Vegas is now 6-1 in the overtime and shootout period with its lone loss coming on Nov. 19 at Edmonton.
For the first time ever, both the Vegas Golden Knights and Henderson Silver Knights won in overtime on the same night.
The win snaps a three-game home losing streak that the Knights were on dating back to Nov. 25.
“It’s nice to win at home,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It’s been a while. Coming from the east, I know [John Tortorella] teams and how they’re typically going to play. It is going to be tight checking and not a lot of space or this odd man rush fest, so you are going to have to earn your way. That is just the way it is.”
With the win, Vegas hits the 20-win mark with a 20-8-1 record, good for 41 points and an eight-point lead over Seattle in the Pacific Division.
The next time the Golden Knights hit the ice will be right back at the T-Mobile Arena for a Sunday, Dec. 11 showdown with the Boston Bruins. Vegas escaped with a 4-3 Dec. 5 in Boston last time these teams played each other.
Puck drop is set for 5 p.m.
It took a little bit of time for the Knights to get going in the first period. Through the first 11 minutes, Vegas only had one SOG (shots on goal). After that, the Knights got seven SOG in the final nine minutes of the period including a William Carrier-goal with 8:15 to play in the opening frame.
Carrier’s goal tied him for a career-high in goals scored for a season with nine goals.
“You put pucks to the net, they get loose,” he said. “We’ve seen it, we’ve got beat. Scramble in front of the net and some loose pucks, it’s not always those pretty goals. That’s how I get all my goals is the five feet around the net.”
The second period was not ideal for the Knights who gave up a goal within the first two minutes of the period.
Goaltender Adin Hill had a costly turnover behind his own net which gave Philadelphia an open net to shoot at. Philadelphia center Scott Laughton shot the puck off Hill and into the net to tie the game 1-1.
“He got himself in trouble with the puck play,” Cassidy said. “Obviously, we’ll have to clean that up, but timely saves. We had some breakdowns, one right out of the gate where we mishandled the puck on a breakout, and he makes a save on a two-on-one only a minute or two into the game so you’re not chasing it. He was good when he needed to be in those instances.”
Hill finished his night with 27 saves on 28 shots faced for a final save percentage of .964. This is the second straight start for Hill where he has a save percentage of .960 or greater.