After losing by six goals in Edmonton on Tuesday, Vegas fought back to take a 5-2 decision in Vancouver last night.
How's this for improbable?
Depending on the outcome of Saturday's Los Angeles-Florida tilt, the Vegas Golden Knights might be playing for first place in the Pacific Division on Sunday against the Kings. At the moment, they're just one point behind LA in the standings.
13 minutes into the final frame and down a goal, the Canucks finally registered their first scoring chance of the period. It was impressive work by the Golden Knights, who strung together shifts like these to limit the home team:
Pluses
A lot of small plays led to some big Vegas goals.
Vegas 2-0:
What a complete shift by Tuch. Skated 200 ft to bother Gagner on backcheck, retrieved puck, held off Pouliot & found Karlsson pic.twitter.com/Tl42KfW4bn
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 17, 2017
Vegas 3-2:
Goal by Erik Haula, produced by James Neal. pic.twitter.com/ux3ohCriyg
— Ryan Quigley (@RP_Quigs) November 17, 2017
Vegas 4-2:
Pouliot's first mistake was this pass to Karlsson. Karlsson couldn't do much with it, but Marchessault then another Pouliot turnover take care of the rest pic.twitter.com/2aZ1aJZ3k3
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 17, 2017
After surrendering seven goals on 29 shots in Edmonton, Lagace turned aside 19 of 21 tonight. After playing just 13:22 against Toronto, Theodore showed off an effective defensive stick and crisp outlets on his way to a 21:04 ATOI (3rd among team defensemen) and a 60.0 5v5 Corsi For % (2nd).
HUGE save by Lagace. pic.twitter.com/8wHqsaWbuf
— Ryan Quigley (@RP_Quigs) November 17, 2017
Minuses
Both Vancouver goals were scored off unforced Vegas errors:
On Horvat goal, #VegasBorn had clear control of the puck, until Neal backhanded dump is anticipated smartly by Gudbranson. Puck is all #Canucks from there
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 17, 2017
Awful turnover by Oscar Lindberg. You don't want to give Brock Boeser a chance like this. pic.twitter.com/EGTkwFBeIN
— Ryan Quigley (@RP_Quigs) November 17, 2017
These were the kind of mistakes which plagued the Knights during their recent 1-4-1 road trip and kept the Canucks around tonight.
But we're just nitpicking, it was a well-deserved win for a complete, 60-minute effort.
The Golden Knights will host the Kings this Sunday evening.
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