Golden Knights Defeat Avalanche in Robin-Round

The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Colorado Avalanche in a Stanely Cup Qualifiers round-robin game at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday. With the ending score of 4-3 in overtime the Golden Knights won the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. 

2nd Period

With not much action taking place in the first period, Vegas took a 1-0 lead at 1:34 during the second period after Jonathan Marchessault scored off of Shea Theodore’s point shot on a power play. Colorado then tied the score 1-1 at 6:46 during the second period on a power-play goal by Nathan MacKinnon, who put a backhand into an open net while spinning in the slot. The Golden Knights won back the lead at 2-1 at 12:55 during the second period after Nicolas Roy put in the rebound of Ryan Reaves‘ shot. The Avalanche tied it 2-2 at 14:51 during the second period after Joonas Donskoi poked in the rebound of J.T. Compher’s shot.

3rd Period 

Marchessault gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead on a penalty shot at 3:02 during the third period after he was hooked on the ice by Ryan Graves on a breakaway. Compher tied the game 3-3 with 1:02 left in the third period with Philipp Grubauer on the bench for an extra attacker. He shot the puck in after Nazem Kadri hit the crossbar.

“That’s how you score goals, getting to the net,” Compher said. “At the end it was a great job moving around by our 6-on-5 unit and we were able to pop one in.”

Overtime

Alex Tuch scored, having only 16 seconds left in overtime to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 4-3 win.

“It feels pretty good,” said Tuch. “Honestly, it was a big goal to get the first seed. I’m glad I could have had it, but I didn’t care who scored it as long as we did. To be able to get that first seed means a lot and I guess personally, it’s probably one of my bigger goals in the playoffs and I’m just trying to move forward and trying to continue that push.”

Marchessault scored twice, Roy scored, and Robin Lehner saved 32 shots for the Golden Knights, who will next play the Chicago Blackhawks, the No. 8 seed, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.