The VGK had a shot at some redemption, Wednesday, erasing a two-goal lead in the third period and knocking off the Stars 5-4.
“Those are games that kind of galvanize your team,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “You’re in a hole. For sure those games have an ability to galvanize and hopefully start a winning streak.”
The main storyline of this game was special teams. Vegas controlled five-on-five play for the entire game, and utterly dominated it in stretches. However, they struggled heavily on special teams.
The Golden Knights had three power play opportunities in the first period, but failed to capitalize on any of them. Their power play looked completely out of sync and could not get anything going.
Dallas had one power play in the first period , and took advantage of the opportunity. Jason Robertson ripped a shot from the point through a triple screen past Robin Lehner to get the Stars on the board first.
The Golden Knights answered back early in the second period after Alex Pietrangelo found Mark Stone just inside the left faceoff circle. Stone roofed his shot over the shoulder of Brayden Holtby to tie the game at one.
The tie was short lived however. Less than two minutes later, the Stars got their second power play of the game. Tyler Seguin scored just three seconds into the man advantage to give the stars a 2-1 lead.
Dallas added a third power play goal later in the period. Joe Pavelski deflected a shot past Lehner to make it 3-1. This ended Lehners night, and Laurent Brossoit came in to try to salvage the game.
“I think it was kind of a shot at the team,” Stone said. “Our penalty kill was 0 for 3. We could’ve blocked a couple shots. They had one seeing-eye shot and a tip. [Lehner] has no chance on those goals.”
The move by DeBoer seemed to work. The team had new found life and energy from that point on.
With about three minutes to go in the second period, Jonathan Marchessault added his 11th goal of the season to cut the lead to just one.
The VGK had multiple chances to find the equalizer in the closing minutes of the period, but were unable to find it.
The pressure continued into the third period, however Dallas did a good job limiting dangerous chances.
With just over 11 minutes left in regulation, Pavelski added his second goal of the game to give the Stars a 4-2 lead.
Shortly after, Seguin had an opportunity to extend the lead to three, but he missed a wide open net.
The Golden Knights made them pay for that miss. On the next offensive zone shift, Michael Amadio scored from inside the face-off circle to get the Golden Knights back within one.
“Oftentimes that’s how the hockey gods work,” Max Pacioretty said. “You just feel like that’s the break you’re going to get.”
That 33 second sequence did indeed prove to be the break the Golden Knights needed.
About five minutes later, Mark Stone added his second goal of the game off a rebound in the low slot to tie the game at four.
67 seconds later, Pacioretty added his seventh goal in eight games to give the Golden Knights their first lead of the game. The goal came off a bad angle shot that somehow found its way between the legs of Holtby.
The lead held up and despite allowing three power play goals, the Golden Knights came out on top 5-4.
Wednesday night’s game against the Stars was the sixth time Vegas had allowed three or more power play goals in a game. The last time the Golden Knights allowed three power play goals in a game was Feb. 11, 2020 against the Minnesota Wild. They were completely dominated in that game and lost 4-0.
It is not very often that a team overcomes an obstacle like that, but the Golden Knights were able to do it. In large part, it was thanks to their five-on-five play. While they did settle for some poor shots at times, they dictated play and hemmed the Stars into their own zone frequently.
“Special teams aside, we felt like if we kept playing the way we were at five-on-five we were going to get some chances to score,” Pietrangelo said. “It was just a matter of capitalizing.”
With this win, the Golden Knights moved to 15-10-0 on the season. Their four-game homestand continues on Dec. 10 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Puck drop is at 7 P.M. and can be viewed on AT&T Sportsnet.
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