The Vegas Golden Knights faced off against the Arizona Coyotes for the fourth game in a row on Sunday afternoon, looking to exact revenge after their first loss of the season on Friday.

Some points of focus going into the game according to Golden Knights head coach Pete DeBoer were to have better defensive awareness and a renewed focus on special teams. It’s no secret that the Knights have struggled on the powerplay so far this season so the head coaches’ remarks should not have come as a surprise. While VGK failed to register a powerplay goal this game, they were able to kill off both penalties taken.

The first period was pretty uneventful as no goals were scored, but VGK held the Arizona Coyotes to just 4 shots while they registered ten of their own, dominating play in the opening frame. The first dangerous chance of the game came almost twelve minutes into the period thanks to a great shot by Alec Martinez as he skated through the left circle, forcing Arizona goaltender Darcy Kuemper to make a difficult glove save to keep it even.

The second period proved to be more interesting as both teams shot totals were fairly even, and each team took some penalties giving VGK an opportunity to work on both aspects of special teams.

While he was unable to score, William Karlsson had a great one-timer on the Knights first powerplay of the night as he nearly put one past Kuemper thanks to a wonderful pass from Mark Stone. A few minutes later Reilly Smith pulled off a great deke around Demeirs and went backhand-forehand nearly giving the Knights the lead. This led to a great segment of possession in the Yotes zone and saw VGK get a few dangerous shots on net, leading to another chance in close by Smith which rang off the post.

Vegas’ second powerplay of the night consisted of better net-front presence with a focus on simplifying and getting shots on net, Pachioretty nearly snuck a shot through traffic but Kuemper was up to the task yet again. In the final minute of the period, Mark Stone made a stellar defensive effort diving to sweep the puck away from the side of the net keeping the game tied at 0.

The final period saw Fleury make an excellent save off a Phil Kessel breakaway in the opening minutes. Though he didn’t have to deal with a ton of shots this game, the veteran goalie made some great saves to give his team a chance in a tightly contested matchup.

The remainder of the third period proved to be pretty uneventful as neither team took a penalty or registered many dangerous scoring opportunities, that is until the last minute of play. With the clock ticking down, Alex Tuch made a pretty standard dump in towards the Coyotes zone which led to Marchessault hustling to track the puck down behind the net. He wasted no time finding William Karlsson driving to the net, who then roofed his shot past Darcy Kuemper for the first and only goal of the game.

The final matchup of the four-game series between VGK and the Arizona Coyotes saw Fleury get his first shutout of the season, leading his team to a league-best 5-1 record. While it was not the most exciting game, the Knights handled business and came out of Gila River Arena with the W and two points in the standings.

The Vegas Golden Knights will resume play on Tuesday night as they take on the St. Louis Blues at T-Mobile Arena. The puck drop is set for 6 p.m. and will be on AT&T SportsNet and FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340.

Golden Knights vs Coyotes           Golden Knights vs Coyotes       Golden Knights vs Coyotes             Golden Knights vs Coyotes             Golden Knights vs Coyotes             Golden Knights vs Coyotes         Golden Knights vs Coyotes  

-D.J. Wood– Franchise Sports Media

Follow D.J. on Twitter @DJwoody97

Follow The Franchise on social media

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube