FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Coyotes - Game 18- 2022

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Coyotes – Game 17 – 2022

Franchise Sports Media

Vegas Golden Knights (14-4-0)  | Arizona Coyotes  (6-9-1)

Phil Kessel celebrates his 1,000th straight career game, as the Golden Knights rebound from their 2 game skid and defeat the Arizona Coyotes 4-1.

The season has started off in the right direction for the Vegas Golden Knights, so far, with a firm grip on first place in the Pacific division and second overall in the NHL. 

Recently the VGK was on a nine-game winning streak, almost tying their 10-game winning streak from last season, but recently the Knights had a bump in the road losing their past two games at home.

It look like the Knights were already losing their edge at first, but moving forward and regrouping has always been the message for them, as they were hosting the Arizona Coyotes at T-Mobile Arena.

Before the puck drop, the Golden Knights had another special milestone night for someone. Phil Kessel was once again celebrated as he played his 1,000 straight career game becoming the first NHL player to accomplish that goal.

Phil Kessel was honored in a pregame ceremony with gifts from the Vegas Golden Knights. “It was neat,” Kessel said. “Obviously, 1,000 games in a row is a lot. I don’t know how I did it, but it’s a good thing.“

Head coach Bruce Cassidy felt confident to start Logan Thompson once again, even though he gave up 3 goals in the recent loss to the San Jose Sharks. Logan Thompson and the rest of the Knights were looking to bounce back on this historic night. The first period remained scoreless, even though the Knights had an upper hand in outscoring the Coyotes.

The Golden Knights started to pull away in the second period thanks to an old friend.

The VGK turned things around in the second period when Alex Pietranglo scored at the 12:21 mark of the second period when he took a feed pass from Jack Eichel at the point and fired a one-timer through traffic to give Vegas its first power-play goal in three games.

“There was a lot of chatter about the power play coming into the season,” Pietrangelo said. “I think we’ve done a real good job executing. We’ve got two really good units.”

The second period remained 1-0 with Vegas in the lead going into the third period. William Carrier extended the lead to 2-0, 31 seconds into the start of the period.

At the 5:53 mark of the third Mark Stone extended the lead to 3-0, after batted the puck into the net from a deflected one timer shot from Alex Pietranglo.

The VGK and Logan Thompson was hoping for a shutout victory, but Arizona’s Clayton Keller scored the first goal for the Coyotes to make the score 3-1. But Reilly Smith ended the night with another goal for Vegas, giving him his seventh goal in his past seven games giving the Golden Knights the victory 4-1 ending their two game losing streak.

The Golden Knights indeed rebounded the learned from their mistakes, especially on special teams; the Golden Knights tightened up their special teams by stopping an Arizona squad that entered with the NHL’s fourth-best power play. The Vegas penalty kill unit stopped all four of the Coyotes power play opportunities.

The Golden Knights will travel up North to Canada as they face the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday at the Rogers Place. They are scheduled to drop the puck at 7:00 pm, and the game can be seen on AT&T Sports Net (channel 313 on Cox Cable) or heard on 98.9 FM, FOX Sports Las Vegas 1340 AM.