The team responded in a big way to that loss. Despite the absence of leading goal scorer Max Pacioretty, the Golden Knights piled on four goals in the third period to knock off the St. Louis Blues 5-1.
“We were a little disappointed with our effort yesterday,” Jonathan Marchessault said. “I’m very proud of that group how we battled back and got a big win tonight.”
Marchessault opened the scoring for the Golden Knights early in the first period. After taking a tripping penalty 33 seconds into the game, Marchessault more than made up for it. After a face-off scramble, Marchessault put the puck on net from a sharp-angle and the puck squirted by Jordan Binnington. The Golden Knights continued to dominate in all three zones, but Binnington was able to hold the fort down. The Golden Knights got a late powerplay in the period, but were unable to find the back of the net. Robin Lehner had to make a big short-handed stop against Blue’s captain Ryan O’Reilly to keep the Blues off the board. The Blues finally got on the board in the second period. Lehner made the initial stop on a wrap-around chance by Vladimir Tarasenko. The rebound then kicked to Vince Dunn and he fired a laser past Lehner to even the score at 1. The teams played a more defensive style for the remainder of the period and entered intermission locked in a 1-1 tie.
The Golden Knights have utterly dominated teams in third periods, and tonight they did just that. It took just 80 seconds for the Golden Knights to break the tie. Mark Stone scored his 11th of the season, after banking the puck off of Dunn’s skate past Binnington. Shortly after, the Blues had a prime scoring chance. However, Lehner came up with a massive stop on Tarasenko to preserve the lead. Lehner was not tested much in the game, but that save helped keep Vegas’ momentum. About seven minutes after that sequence, Keegan Kolesar found himself alone in front of the net and put the puck past Binnington for his first NHL goal.
“I think my reaction and the bench reaction says it all,” Kolesar said following his goal. “[It was] Very uplifting. It was a long time coming and a mountain off my back.”
Both William Karlsson and Mark Stone added power play goals late in the period as well to give the Golden Knights a 5-1 lead. The Blues had no answer for the Golden Knights in the third period, and only generated three shots on net. The 5-1 score held up, and the VGK emerged with a much needed win over the Blues.
In a way, third period outbursts have become a trend with the Golden Knights. In a number of games now, they have played okay to awful in the second period. When the third period rolls around, they run teams out of the building.
“There's no doubt there is a confidence and composure to the group,” Golden Knights head coach Pete Deboer said. “We know what our game looks like when we’re playing well and when we are not. I think our guys have an ability to get back to that game when we need to.
Stone and Karlsson both finished with three-point games. The line of Karlsson, Smith, and Marchessault piled 17 shots on goal, one more than the entire Blues team. They were dominant all night long and lived in the offensive zone. Robin Lehner also moved to 8-1-1 on the season and has looked fantastic since his return from injury. Stone moved into 5th place in the league for total points tonight with his three point game as well.
With the win tonight, the VGK remained perfect when leading after the first period (18-0-1 when scoring first). More importantly, they remain three points ahead of the red-hot Colorado Avalanche, who won Monday night as well. They have a few days off before heading to Colorado for a two game set against the Avs.
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