FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Ducks- Game 10

In their third matchup of the season, the Vegas Golden Knights came out firing vs the Ducks and made goalie Ryan Miller’s night hard from the get go.

Less than three minutes after the puck drop, William Carrier broke out on a partial breakaway and nearly put his shot into the net. Just a few minutes later Chandler Stephenson continued to apply pressure forcing Miller to make yet another difficult save. VGK was awarded a power play around the twelve-minute mark and while they didn’t score, they had plenty of dangerous chances. Minutes later, Ryan Miller showed why he is the winningest American-born goalie making a hard save on Mark Stone who had a great chance from the left circle. Ryan Miller had 388 wins coming into this game and showed why he has had such a great career by making a handful of great saves in the first ten minutes.

However, the Knights eventually broke through on a great goal from Chandler Stephenson with nine minutes left in the period. After killing off a penalty, Pachioretty and Stone had some beautiful back and forth passes and nearly put it past Miller again. With a little over a minute left in the first period, Marchessault finally netted VGK’s second goal of the night after battling in front of the net and redirecting a shot from Reilly Smith with his skate. In the final seconds, Reeves and Deslauriers threw off the gloves and had a solid tilt which saw both players connect on some painful-looking punches.

The second period saw the Knights build off the momentum created in the first period with some additional scoring and a few great saves from Fleury.

At 17:21 Alex Tuch widened the VGK lead to three goals roofing a backhand shot on Miller after receiving a pass from Cody Glass. Glass has been noticeable in a good way lately showing he can be an effective player in terms of goal scoring and dishing the puck to his teammates. Just a minute after Tuch’s goal Lundestrome of the Ducks narrowed the lead to two goals scoring off a pass from Max Comtois. Fleury responded shortly after by making two saves in a row off sequential shots from Duck’s captain Ryan Getzlaf, preventing a momentum swing in Anaheim’s favor.

With a little over six minutes left in the period Carrier registered another great chance but Miller denied his backhand shot. Nicolas Roy came through with his first goal of the season with just over three minutes left to give the Golden Knights their second three-goal lead of the period. His goal came off of another pass from Cody Glass for his second assist of the night. The Knight’s depth has been showing up a lot lately with multiple players registering points in the past few games.

The Knights went into the third period looking like they were going to cruise to a fairly easy victory, but the Ducks did not roll over so easily.

Just over five minutes into the final frame Troy Terry cut the Knights lead to two goals following up on the puck after Fleury made an excellent save on Kevin Shattenkirk. VGK almost immediately answered back with a chance from Reilly Smith that rang off the crossbar and out. With 12:37 left in the game, Adam Henrique capitalized on a turnover by Nic Hague scoring and bringing Anaheim within one goal. Thirty seconds after the Ducks goal, Nic Roy took a high sticking penalty to send the Ducks to a powerplay with a chance to tie the game

The Ducks did just that as Ryan Getzlaf was left wide open at the left circle and did not waste much time putting the puck past Fleury to tie the game with ten minutes left. The Knights have only lost a game after holding a three-goal lead once in their history, and it started to feel like the second time may happen after letting the Ducks back in the game. Once Pachioretty was stopped on another glove save by Miller it was clear that this was anyone’s game. Zach Whitecloud silenced those doubts though with just under four minutes left in the game scoring by following up on a save by Miller and putting VGK in the lead once again. Miller was pulled right around the two-minute mark but Anaheim was unable to score with the extra man and fell to the Knights 5-4. Vegas improved to 8-1-1 for their best start in franchise history worth 17 points in the standings with three games in hand on second place St. Louis.

The Vegas Golden Knights will resume play Thursday Night taking on the Anaheim Ducks at T-Mobile Arena. The puck drop is set for 7 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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