The Vegas Golden Knights kicked off week six of the NHL season with the beginning of a long home-stand. The Golden Knights were coming off of a loss in Detroit, prior to week six beginning. The team’s top (uninjured) forwards seemingly upped their game in the last week with certain players scoring at the rate expected of them. Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith, especially, recorded five points this week for the Golden Knights.
The final game of the week also finally saw the return of the team captain, Mark Stone. He was definitely a welcome sight for a team that had been without it’s captain for the previous 12 games.
The first game of the week was played against the league’s newest team. This was the first time the two youngest teams in the league played one another since opening night. The Kraken who have struggled in the early stages of their inaugural season were unable to turn things around in Las Vegas. leaving Sin City in a similar fashion to the first time.
The game was tied through two periods with the goals for Vegas coming from Alex Pietrangelo and Evgenii Dadonov. Rielly Smith scored a 5-on-5 goal early in the third period before also scoring a PP goal less than a minute later. The final scoreline for this game was 5-2 for the VGK.
Game two of the week saw the Golden Knights hosting the Minnesota Wild. The Wild, being the best team in the Central Division, were expected to come in and dominate this game. Despite this, it was Vegas’ rookies that took early command of the game.
In his second NHL game ever, Paul Cotter scored his first goal in the early stages of the first period. Jonas Røndbjerg joined Cotter with his own before going on to have a first-star of the night performance with two points. Jonathan Marchessault scored for the Golden Knights late in the second period after a Minnesota turnover, making it a three-goal game.
Though the Wild scored twice in the third, the Golden Knights held on long enough to win 3-2. Toppling a team that is seen as one of the top contenders in the league.
This game also saw Alec Martinez take a skate to the face which force him to exit the game. When asked about Martinez’s status, coach Pete DeBoer did not have good news.
“Ugly, ugly cut, I don’t have an exact number in the stitches, but I had heard over 50.”
This injury would see Martinez miss further game-time as he did not play in the next game, and his status has yet to change.
The struggling Vancouver Canucks came to Las Vegas in the hopes of getting their season on the right track. This game also saw the return of Vegas captain, Mark Stone. though it seemed to take him a little while to shake the rust off he was a welcome sight to the Vegas Golden Knights fanbase. After missing 12 games due to injury, it was bound to take some time for him to re-acclimate to game speed.
After 10 minutes had passed in the first period, the Canucks had already managed to score 2 goals. With the Golden Knights going down two so early, many did not think Vegas had enough firepower to make up the difference. A Dadonov PP goal in the dying seconds of the first period turned the momentum around going into the second period.
In the middle frame, Reilly Smith and Brayden McNabb added goals of their own before the Canucks scored one of their own. Making it a 3-3 game going into the third period.
In the third, Jake Leschyshyn scored his first NHL goal before Vancouver tied the game up once more, shortly after. After Vancouver had tied the game at four a piece, Vegas took control of the game. Dadonov added another goal while Jonathan Marchessault scored two of his own to secure a 7-4 victory for the Golden Knights.
Featured image courtesy of ESPN
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