The Golden Knights answered that bell in a thunderous way. The Golden Knights erupted for four goals in the first 8:44 and went on to win 7-4 over the Coyotes.
“We talked about it, and [our starts] had been an issue the last couple games,” Golden Knights head coach Pete Deboer said. “I thought the guys fixed it. I thought we were great.”
The Golden Knights have been fighting themselves on the power play for the last five games. In those games, they had gone an abysmal 0 for 18 on the man advantage. Tonight, it was that same power play that got them off to their fast start. Jonathan Marchessault netted the goal, putting home shot off a beautiful feed through the seam by Max Pacioretty. William Carrier got on the board shortly after to give the VGK a 2-0 lead. Arizona called a timeout to try to stop the bleeding, but it did not help. Keegan Kolesar, who has been robbed countless times the past few games, stole a puck from Ilya Lyubshkin and rifled the loose puck past Aidin Hill to give the VGK a 3-0 lead. Carrier took a penalty later, but Reilly Smith and William Karlsson combined for some beautiful passing on a 2 on 0 breakaway. Smith took the feed from Karlsson and found the back of the net to give the VGK a 4-0 lead.
The second period slowed down a bit. After the Coyotes controlled play through the first few minutes, Mark Stone found Chandler Stephenson on a stretch pass. Stephenson then walked in alone and put a shot between the legs of Hill to give the Golden Knights a 5-0 lead. Before the period ended however, Nick Schmaltz scored to break up Robin Lehner’s shut out bid.
The Coyotes took the momentum from the late Schmaltz goal and ran with it. Dryden Hunt and Clayton Keller scored in the first 3:40 to cut the VGK lead to just two goals. Reilly Smith answered six minutes later to restore the three-goal lead, but Michael Bunting scored just 15 seconds after to make it 6-4 Two-goals was as close as the Coyotes would come though. With less than a minute to play, Max Pacioretty ended his seven-game goalless drought with an empty-net bid to give the Golden Knights a 7-4 victory.
The Golden Knights top-six had been struggling in their last five games. Stone and Pacioretty specifically, had two combined points in the last five games. In Friday night’s game, they got contributions from them in a big way. Each player on the top two lines recorded at least a point, and five of the six had two-point outings. Smith and Stephenson ended goalless droughts as well. Pacioretty recorded a goal and an assist, and Stone recorded an assist as well.
Robin Lehner was not tested much through the first two periods but managed to hold the fort down when needed. He had a bit more of a challenge in the third period, allowing three goals on the Coyote’s first three shots in the period. Luckily, the team had his back tonight and gave him the goal support he needed.
“We obviously don’t want to let in those goals in the third,” Lehner said. “Anytime you can get a win in this stretch before the playoffs and get away with a few mistakes [is a good thing].”
With the victory in Friday’s game, the Golden Knights moved to 26-11-2 (54 points) and remain four points clear of the Minnesota Wild. The Golden Knights will face off on April 11 against the Coyotes once again. Arizona will look to build on their momentum from the third period, and the VGK will need to match that if they want to come away with a win.
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