FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Kings- Game 33

It was my first time back in T-Mobile Arena in well over a year, and while the capacity was still limited, the energy from the building was in full effect. Everything from the pregame show to warmups to the play on ice still had that electric feel to it that has endured through the past 12 months. With that said, the Kings hopped out to a 1-0 lead sixty seconds after the game started as Matt Roy buried a snapshot from above the faceoff circles to give his team the first goal.

The Kings built off the momentum for the first ten minutes causing Nicolas Hague to take a holding penalty seven minutes in, but L.A. could not cash in and widen their lead. After killing off the penalty, VGK started taking the momentum back in large part due to Robin Lehner making some great saves to ensure L.A. did not widen their lead. While L.A. had the majority of quality chances in the first period, the fact that they were not able to capitalize on any more of them showed that the Knights were determined to bend but not break as they went into the first intermission.

The second period saw the momentum swing towards the Knight’s favor completed as they scored three unanswered goals to take a commanding lead.

The first goal came just over four minutes into the period as Reilly Smith scored a powerplay goal to tie the game up. The opportunity came after Quick made a couple of saves, causing him to sprawl on the ice in desperation; Smith saw the puck lying in front of the vulnerable netminder and buried it top shelf to tie the game up. It was the type of greasy goal you would like to see more of from the Knights, where they did an effective job of overwhelming the opponent’s goalie and cashed in on a juicy rebound.

The Knights second goal came later in the period with three and a half minutes remaining as Zach Whitecloud missed a shot that hit the end-boards and took a fortuitous bounce, landing on the other side of the goal. Tomas Nosek was in the perfect position to cash in on the opportunity and wasted no time doing so burying the puck into a gaping net. Not even a minute and a half later, VGK notched another goal in their favor to give them a two-goal lead. The Knights had some great possession in the Kings zone and controlled the puck behind the goal line before Jonathan Marchessault found Nicolas Hague buried a one-timer from the top of the left circle. Vegas went into the second intermission with a comfy lead and seemed to be completely in control of the game.

The third period went exactly as the VGK would want it to go as shots were kept to a minimum and the Kings never looked threatening in the final twenty minutes.

The third period was a fast one as stoppages were minimal, and there was only one penalty called in the final frame. The penalty was on Nicolas Hague after he took a hooking penalty, but the Kings powerplay was rendered ineffective, and the Knights penalty kill went a perfect 3/0 on the day. With a little over seven minutes remaining, former Kings defenseman Alec Martinez scored the dagger putting a wrist shot past Johnathan Quick to put VGK up 4-1. This game was exactly the type of game you want to see from the Knights when playing an opponent that is trending towards the bottom of the standings as they were able to brush off the early goal against and take over the game by the second period.

Looking Forward:

VGK will play the second game of this two-game series on Wednesday, looking to go 5-1 in the season series. The Knights have dominated the season series so far, only losing to the Kings once this season and looking like the much better team in their other matchups. In their one loss to L.A. this season, the Kings were able to build upon a two-goal lead and caught the Knights sleeping to start the game. Vegas prevented that from happening again; even though they let in the first goal, and they did not allow L.A. to build any more momentum and capitalized on a number of opportunities. Look for VGK to build off their last two periods and come into Wednesday night’s game looking to score the game’s first goal and establish control in the opening frame.

The Vegas Golden Knights will resume play Wednesday evening against The Los Angeles Kings at T-Mobile Arena. 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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