Defenseman Nate Schmidt, USA Today Sports
Ryan Carpenter scored his first goal of the season as the Golden Knights beat the Dallas Stars, ending their four-game win streak, by a score of 4-2. With the win, Vegas improved to 17-14-1 while Dallas fell to 16-11-3. Both teams have 35 points on the season and find themselves in 4th place in their respective divisions.
Dallas thought they opened the scoring 53 seconds into the game with a Tyler Seguin one-timer, coming off an offensive zone faceoff to the left of Marc-Andre Fleury. Seguin fired a missile past Fleury, but the puck shot down off of the crossbar, landing centimeters in front of the goal line, and bouncing back out into open ice. Stars players celebrated, as Vegas players stood around confused. Upon review, it was determined that the puck did not go in and play resumed. Bullet dodged for Vegas early on.
About six minutes into the first period, Vegas got caught with too many men and sent Jonathan Marchessault (odd) to the box to serve the bench minor. It didn't take the Stars long to capitalize on the power play, as Martin Hanzal redirected Miro Heiskanen's point shot into the net, taking a 1-0 lead. The Stars won a faceoff in the Vegas zone, worked it to the point, and as Esa Lindell's pass went to Heiskanen, Hanzal set a good screen, resulting in his goal. The power play goal was his first of the season.
Vegas would answer back before the period came to a close. Carpenter's first of the season came on a slick backhand from a sharp angle. Oscar Lindberg got a shot through traffic in front of Dallas goaltender Ben Bishop. The rebound made its way to Carpenter, who was set up to the immediate right of the goal, and the game was tied with 3:38 left in the opening frame. At the end of the first period, both teams had eight shots on goal and the play was fairly even.
Although Dallas had a few good chances in the second, Vegas pretty much dominated the period. Fleury had a few key saves to keep the game tied. On his first big save, Fleury bailed Vegas out of a bad defensive zone breakdown, robbing Alexander Radulov on a backdoor one-timer. Soon after, Fleury shut down Tyler Seguin, on a breakaway. Radulov and Seguin are great scorers and coming up clutch on them seemed to give the rest of his team life. The Golden Knights proceeded to take over following those big chances for Dallas.
Following a lackluster power play, the Golden Knights took a 2-1 lead, courtesy of a brilliant wrist shot off the stick of William Karlsson. Karlsson's tenth goal of the season came just three seconds after the Dallas penalty to Hanzal expired. It wasnt technically a power play goal, but they were set up in the Stars' zone prior to the end of Hanzal's two minute detention. Karlsson was given an oddly large amount of time and space at the top of the faceoff circle. He then walked the puck down a tad and fired a wrist shot past the glove of Bishop. A great shot beating a great goaltender.
Seeing a goal come right after the power play must have been fun for the Golden Knights because they did it again 7:29 later. Nine seconds after another Dallas penalty ended, Alex Tuch banged home a rebound, though the legs of Bishop. Max Pacioretty and Colin Miller were credited with assists on Tuch's 10th of the season. The two goals following the VGK power plays gave the Golden Knights a 3-1 lead heading into the second intermission.
Dallas got off to a strong start in the third period. They were consistently pressuring the Vegas defense and forced Fleury to make another handful of big saves. Eventually the Stars got one past Fleury when Lindell scored a power play goal thanks to Jason Spezza. Spezza held the puck at the top of faceoff circle and fired it through the Vegas defense toward Lindell at the side of the net. The pass redirected off of Lindell's skate and into the Golden Knights' net, cutting the Vegas lead to one goal.
Vegas' penalty killers came up huge in the third period, as they effectively killed off a Shea Theodore double-minor for high sticking. Dallas pressured for most of the four minutes, but the Golden Knights did a great job hustling to loose pucks and clearing their zone. The Stars were unable to tie the game. A too many men penalty to Dallas, late in the third, essentially iced the game for the Golden Knights. The Stars ended up pulling Bishop to have 5-on-5 play, down a goal, but Reilly Smith finished them off with the empty net goal, the nail in the coffin.
All-in-all, it was a back-and-forth, competitive game. As the third period progressed, it seemed as if the Stars were pressing too much, trying to make something happen and tie the game. Vegas did a good job of limiting high danger chances all night, sans a few real scary breakdowns, shut down by Fleury.
Fleury was credited with the win, making 22 saves on 24 shots. This was the second night in a row that Fleury started in goal and his tenth straight game started. He is currently on pace to start over 70 games, while backup Malcolm Subban remains glued to the bench. The Golden Knights are going all-in on Fleury and they better hope he doesn't get injured again. Last season they were forced to play five goalies because of injury. It seems like the organization forgets that ever happened. A goalie of Fleury's experience and skill is a good thing to have, but he also has 764 regular season games of wear and tear on his body. He will need rest and Subban does need the game time.
Following this win, the Golden Knights prepare for a four-game east coast road trip, starting Wednesday evening in New York. Wednesday's contest against the Islanders is scheduled for a 4pm Pacific start and can be seen on AT&T Sportsnet or caught on Fox Sports Radio 98.9FM.
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