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The Vegas Golden Knights started their three-game Canada road trip with a win against the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday, March 21 by a score of 4-3. Vegas won the season series between these two teams Tuesday night as VGK has won two of the three meetings this year.
“We’re always happy to win,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It’s that time of the year. There’s always things that we’re going to need to correct. I didn’t like how we finished the game. It’s stuff that we’re going to have to address if we want to be a more complete team, we’re going to have to be better for the full 60 minutes.”
This win has Vegas at 44-21-6 on the session with 94 points in the Pacific Division, maintaining their two point lead over Los Angeles and six point lead over Edmonton in the division.
Tuesday’s win was also the 22nd road win of the season for the Golden Knights who have matched their best single-season road win total.
The next time that the Vegas Golden Knights will hit the ice for a game will be Thursday, March 23 as they travel to Calgary for a matchup with the Calgary Flames. Puck-drop is set for 7 p.m. and can be seen on AT&T Sportsnet in Las Vegas or ESPN+ in all other markets.
Goalie Jonathan Quick got the start in net for Vegas Tuesday night and recorded 31 saves on the 34 shots he faced for a final save percentage of .912. The win for Quick is his 375th career NHL win which places him second all-time among American-born goaltenders.
“[Quick’s] had a really good career,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “He’s fun to watch, and fun to talk to.”
Pietrangelo finished his night with an assist and was awarded the second star of the game.
It was another fast start for the Golden Knights who lit the lamp twice in the opening frame. The first of the two goals came off the stick of right-winger Phil Kessel just over three minutes into the game to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead.
Kessel has goals in back-to-back games for the second time this season and he has recorded four points in his last four games (two goals, two assists).
VGK’s second goal came from right-winger Reilly Smith with 7:49 to play in the opening period to give Vegas the 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
Smith’s goal gives him at least one point in each of his last nine games which ties the franchise record for most consecutive games with a point scored.
Assisting on Smith’s goal was center William Karlsson who now joins left-winger Jonathan Marchessault as the only other Golden Knight to record 300 career points.
The second period was a back and forth affair with each team lighting up the lamp twice. Both Vancouver goals scored came off the stick of center J.T. Miller, scoring on a penalty shot and on the power play.
Miller’s converted penalty shot was the first penalty shot scored on the Golden Knights in franchise history. Before this shot, opposing teams were 0-5 on the penalty shot against Vegas.
Miller finished his game with the two goals and an assist, giving him three points scored for the game and was awarded the first star of the game in the loss.
The Knights got goals from a pair of new faces to the organization when center Teddy Blueger scored his fourth goal of the season to put Vegas up 3-1 and left-winger Pavel Dorofeyev scored his fourth goal of the season to put the Knights up 4-2 heading into the third period.
“When different guys are contributing, everyone’s feeling good about themselves,” Blueger said.
Dorofeyev has six points in the last five games, tallying up four goals and two assists during that stretch.
Vancouver was able to cut the Vegas lead down to one when left-winger Phillip Di Guiseppe scored with 8:17 to go in regulation.
The Canucks had their chances down the final eight minutes of the game but ultimately could not draw even with the Golden Knights on the scoreboard and Vegas secured the 4-3 win.