Last week on the Knightly Recap, the Vegas Golden Knights finished their season meetings against both the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues on the road and at home respectively.
This week on the Knightly Recap, the Golden Knights finish off their regular season against the Colorado Avalanche at home and San Jose Sharks on the road. The key game this week is the home game against the Avalanche. This game will determine who wins the President’s Trophy and the top seed in the Honda West Division and league.
With that said, welcome to week 18 of the Knightly Recap.
Before the start of the game, Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon held a nine minute press conference about the injuries the team had suffered recently including newer ones.
Currently, Golden Knights forwards Ryan Reaves, Tomas Nosek, Max Pacioretty and Peyton Krebs along with defenseman Alec Martinez were not in the lineup for this game. Reaves has been out the longest being placed on LTIR a few weeks.
💻: GM Kelly McCrimmon ahead of tonight’s game. #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/cf8th5AbYk
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 11, 2021
The Golden Knights practically dominated the Avalanche in every aspect of this game. From shots on goal, faceoff percentage and takeaways just to name a few. They even scored the game’s first goal from defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.
All gas, no brakes ⛽️ #VegasBorn | @Raising_Canes pic.twitter.com/aONG10PywM
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 11, 2021
However, that would be the only Golden Knights goal as the Avalanche came back and scored two unanswered goals in the second and third periods. Even when the game was tied at one goal a piece, Avalanche forward J.T. Compher scored the game winning goal as he was falling down to the ground during the third period.
It’s because of this one goal that got the Avalanche closer to the top seed and President’s Trophy.
During the post game media conference with Golden Knights head coach Pete DeBoer, reporters were asking questions that seemed to anger DeBoer. Most of the questions were “talking about the negatives” as DeBoer puts it in his words. He didn’t think the team had any negatives to take away from this game, rather there were lots of positives.
💻 DeBoer: I’m really proud of our group. pic.twitter.com/gZcuF4szdE
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 11, 2021
DeBoer was stressed to the point where the mediator for the press conference abruptly ended the head coach’s media availability.
As of May 10, the Golden Knights still hold the top spot in both the division and league by two points. The Golden Knights have 80 points with one game remaining and the Avalanche have 78 points with two games remaining.
If the Golden Knights are able to win their last game of the season against the Sharks, then they’ll be back up ahead by four points. However, if the Avalanche win their last two games, the Avalanche will clinch first place and the President’s Trophy because they own the tiebreaker.
The Avalanche’s last two matchups are against the Los Angeles Kings at home.
Final score: 2-1 COL
Goal scorers: COL – Andre Burakovsky (7:04 2nd Period), J.T. Compher (11:33 3rd Period)
VGK – Alex Pietrangelo (8:11 1st Period)
There was no doubt the Golden Knights desperately wanted the top spot in the division and league while being able to win their first President’s Trophy. Who wouldn’t? And this game showed that the Golden Knights were on a mission. As long as they won this game, the Kings just had to beat the Avalanche in one of the two games.
The Golden Knights dominated the Sharks by keeping the momentum they had from last game to this one despite losing to the Avalanche. Golden Knights prospect Dylan Sikura scored his first two goals with the team after being called up from the team’s AHL team Henderson Silver Knights.
He’s wicked smaht dude 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Xa5oBbCBwN
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 13, 2021
Also, this win gave Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury his 491th career win after surpassing NHL legend Roberto Luongo for third all-time in wins. Fleury also recorded his sixth shutout this season with the 6-0 victory.
After the win, Fleury and fellow Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner won the William M. Jennings Trophy. The Jennings Trophy is given to the best goalie tandem in the NHL that has allowed the fewest goals throughout a season. Fleury and Lehner both combined for 124 goals allowed during the shortened 56 game season.
🐼🌸 Robin Lehner and Marc-Andre Fleury have won the William M. Jennings Trophy for the lowest combined goals-against average in the NHL!!!! 🌸🐼 #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/I1KG7RMCps
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 13, 2021
The runner-ups were New York Islanders’ goaltenders Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin with both having a combined 128 goals allowed.
Final score: 6-0 VGK
Goal scorers: SJS – None
VGK – Alex Pietrangelo (3:52 1st Period), Keegan Kolesar (7:48 1st Period), William Carrier (3:05 2nd Period), Jonathan Marchesssault (7:04 2nd Period), Dylan Sikura (4:10 3rd Period, 12:16 3rd Period)
Well that does it for the 2020-21 regular season! Now it’s time for the Golden Knights to focus on their quest back to the Stanley Cup Final.
As of last night, the Avalanche clinched the division and league with the top spot by winning both of their final two games of their season. They also clinch the top seed in both the division and league along with winning the President’s Trophy.
The Golden Knights are heading into the playoffs as the second seed. They’ll be facing the Minnesota Wild in the first round which should be entertaining after what transpired in their last two meetings.
See you on Sunday, Fortress. 🏰 #KnightUp pic.twitter.com/N5XZOGIcDX
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 14, 2021
Vegas’ quest for the Stanley Cup starts now. Until then, stay tuned for the first Stanley Cup Playoff edition of the Knightly Recap.
