FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Wild- Game 18

Monday night’s matchup against the Minnesota Wild did not disappoint as we saw Mark Stone have a career night while leading his team to a crazy finish.

You could feel there was a different type of energy in T-Mobile Arena even from watching at home as Go Knights Go chants broke out early on, and real-life fans occupied the stadium seats. Ryan Reeves emulated the extra energy early on, landing a huge hit on Zach Parise not even five minutes into the opening. Things looked positive for VGK early on as they were sent to the power play shortly after the big hit and were able to generate some dangerous opportunities but were not rewarded with a goal. The rest of the period played out pretty evenly after the initial adrenaline rush and both teams settled in and began to feel each other out. This is pretty typical when teams play each other for the first time in a season as neither team wants to show their hand right away. The remaining time saw the shots finish 11-12 in the Knight’s favor and both teams head into intermission with the score tied at 0-0.

The second period was much more lively in terms of scoring as both teams combined for six total goals in the middle frame.

A little over seven minutes in Vegas was awarded another powerplay and seemed to have scored after just ten seconds but Reilly Smith’s goal was waved off since he swatted the puck in with his hand. However, it took just about a minute after that for Cody Glass to open up the scoring, tipping in a shot pass from captain Mark Stone. Minnesota answered back with a goal of their own by Jordan Greenway as he drove to the net and buried his own rebound with 11:09 left in the period. At 10:03 the Wild added another goal to give them the lead As Marcus Foligno received a pass from Jonas Brodin and beat Fleury. Minnesota has shown a tendency to score goals in bunches this year and we definitely saw them continue that trend tonight.

Vegas was awarded another powerplay at the 7:01 mark after Minnesota was caught with too many men on the ice. Max Pachioretty capitalized on the opportunity scoring a goal after another stellar pass from Mark Stone to tie the game up at two. With a little over two minutes left in the period, the Wild scored a pair of goals in to give them a multi-goal lead heading into the third. The first of those two came from Nick Bonino after he put the puck past Fleury following a scramble in front of the VGK net. Marcus Foligno scored another goal just nineteen seconds later, beating Fleury’s high glove side to give his team a two-goal lead heading into the third.

The third period was a great example of the Knight’s resiliency as they were determined not to disappoint their fans in their first game back in the building.

Things looked a little grim after the first nine minutes as VGK failed to register a shot on net during that timeframe. But that all changed with 7:20 remaining as Nic Hague hammered in a shot off the faceoff from Mark Stone to bring the Knights within one. From that point on you could see the momentum building in the Knight’s favor, led by the tremendous effort of their captain. The momentum swing was completed with 41.6 seconds left in the game as the Knights tied the game up after pulling the goalie for the extra man. Alex Tuch corralled a puck sent over by Mark Stone while lurking in front of the Wild’s goal crease and immediately tipped in the pass to tie the game up.

It only took two minutes of three on three overtime for VGK to finish the comeback as Max Pachioretty iced the game finding twine after yet another pass from Mark Stone that led to a goal. Mark Stone exemplified everything you would want to see out of your captain as he had five assists on the night and found multiple ways to set his teammates up for success in a highly contested matchup. It would have been easy for VGK to crumble after the two-goal onslaught from the Wild to end the second, but the captain was not going to let that happen and was probably the biggest factor in winning the game.

The Vegas Golden Knights will resume play Wednesday evening taking on the Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena for the second time thisseason. The puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. and will be on AT&T Sportsnet and FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340.

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-D.J. Wood– Franchise Sports Media

Follow D.J. on Twitter @DJwoody97

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