Marc-Andre Fleury returned against Colorado, leading Vegas to a 2-1 shootout loss in Denver.
Down 1-0 after two periods and being outplayed by more, the Golden Knights kicked off the final frame...on their heels.
Along the center ice wall, Mikko Rantanen withstood a Brayden McNabb hit, handing off the puck to Gabriel Landeskog coming from behind with speed.
Landeskog stretched the puck to Nathan MacKinnon -- it's now a two-on-two with the Colorado linemates taking on Jonathan Marchessault and Nate Schmidt. MacKinnon blows by Marchessault, making it a two-on-one.
Fleury robs Landeskog #VegasBorn #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/fr8mGeDiQZ
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 24, 2018
Pluses
Just 54 seconds later, Marchessault would make up for being blowtorched by MacKinnon.
It's another two-on-two, with Marchessault and Tomas Tatar advancing on Erik Johnson and Patrik Nemeth. But then, Marchessault stutter steps Nemeth, creating a sliver of a shooting lane for himself:
In basketball, they talk about players who can create their own shot. Marchessault is that kind of player.
In all, Vegas dominated the final frame and overtime -- 31-16 Corsi (all situations), 19-8 shots, 16-6 scoring chances, and 5-4 high-danger, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The first 40 minutes, however, were a challenge, as Colorado pummeled them (20-13 scoring chances, 13-3 high-danger all situations).
That said, especially in the middle frame, the Golden Knights managed to keep the Avalanche to the perimeter:
Strong defensive rotation by #VegasBorn here. #GoAvsGo have a lot of possession, but that's it. This was highlighted by Schmidt poking it away from Landeskog pic.twitter.com/lSIubg58Ee
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 24, 2018
There's one fantastic individual defensive play on this shift, and that's the last one. But before that, tight man-to-man coverage -- I mean, check out this clip again -- keeps Vegas in the game:
Minuses
Gerard Gallant's explanation for why the Knights took over in the third was illuminating on many levels.
"We really put pucks behind the goal line," remarked Gallant. "We went low to high to our defensemen, started getting more shots on net, more traffic."
This tells you what Vegas was doing in the third -- and what they weren't doing before that.
#GoAvsGo winning the neutral zone right now. Would like to see #VegasBorn get pucks in deep and forecheck a little, instead of relying so much on trying to skate and pass through a clogged NZ
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 24, 2018
Get it in deep, forecheck, go low to high. It's not pretty hockey, but sometimes you have to take what the opposition gives you #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/d7hB5OU3EY
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 24, 2018
The Avs head to Las Vegas on Monday to keep their snowballing playoff hopes rolling, while the Knights may be in a position to punch their postseason ticket.
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