It was a 4-1 game; it was a 4-4 game. Maxime Lagace and Martin Jones started; Malcolm Subban and Aaron Dell finished. There was a goal called back after review; there was a goal allowed after review.
This was not a well-played game from either the Vegas Golden Knights or San Jose Sharks, but it was evenly sloppy, and both sides came out with a well-deserved point. However, Jonathan Marchessault earned the extra point for Vegas with the 5-4 OT winner.
Winning Play
San Jose is still among the heavier teams in the league, so it wasn't in Vegas's best interest to try to compete with Joe Thornton and company down low.
Before William Karlsson's second goal, which made it 4-1, the Knights kept the puck far away from their hashmarks with insistent forechecking and dogged neutral zone battle:
With some impressive stop-and-start, Marchessault prevents Joakim Ryan's clean breakout.
To Ryan's credit, he eventually advances the puck, but Karlsson, instead of trailing the play, is now in place to create NZ havoc:
Karlsson swipes it from Logan Couture, then skates through Couture, turning the play the other way.
It looks like I'll be quoting Guy Boucher all year. This was the epitome of "relentless" hockey.
This was also Karlsson's eighth goal in six games.
Pluses
The Swede scored two goals, but he could've had more. He fired seven shots on a goal, a new career game-high.
"Would've been nice to get the hat trick," laughed the ex-Blue Jacket, who entered the season with a career 7.7 shooting %. He's rocking a 24.5 this year.
The Marchessault-Karlsson-Reilly Smith line was once again the squad's most dangerous.
Indeed, Marchessault was all over the place. Besides the OT winner, he notched a well-earned assist on the James Neal power play strike which made it 2-0:
On Neal goal: Dillon has a chance to clear on PK, but Marchessault does lovely job dancing on blueline and evading two converging Sharks to keep it in for Neal to capitalize pic.twitter.com/ioScGOfuau
Speaking of the winner, which was reviewed, Shea Theodore helped the cause with this highlight reel juke of future first-ballot Hall of Famer Joe Thornton:
On Marchessault's OT winner: Theodore leaves Thornton spinning out of control & enjoys easy zone entry. Burns breaks his stick, chooses to go off while #VegasBorn still have control, Vlasic can't get back in time to cover Marchessault pic.twitter.com/03kvkwUMFx
"I just try to use my skating to my best ability," said Theodore. "I just kind of got lucky."
No, Shea, you're just good.
The 22-year-old blueliner also notched the opening goal of the game, which featured some eye-catching work from Alex Tuch and Brendan Leipsic.
On the Theodore goal: Tuch turns his back and springs Leipsic into NZ, Leipsic stickhandles Burns, Eakin pass banks off Thronton's skate pic.twitter.com/Mm1sVPOq4B
Gallant admitted, "I thought when we got up 4-1, we weren’t playing great hockey, but we took advantage of some opportunities and they made some mistakes.
"I had the feeling it was going to be a tough night because we weren’t playing the right way. We didn’t have the legs.
"We were on the wrong side of the puck a lot tonight."
Playing the wrong way almost put the Golden Knights down 5-4 early in the third:
Joonas Donskoi takes away Brayden McNabb's first option (Nate Schmidt), then the coverage loses Couture. Of course, this bid was ultimately disallowed:
Timo Meier was called for interference, but it looks like both parties were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. More seriously, Perron never returned to the game and is considered "day-to-day" with an "upper body injury," according to Gallant.
After giving up four goals on 23 shots, Lagace was pulled before the final frame. Interestingly, he was not on the bench throughout the third, suggesting some injury.
Gallant, however, indicated that Lagace was simply not "feeling well." Regardless, he refused to commit to Subban as the starter tomorrow evening.
The Knights ride into Glendale for the back-to-back, hoping to win their fifth straight.
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