FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Devils - Game 30

Reilly Smith won a battle on the boards, and Roy provided a nice well-timed screen in front of Mackenzie Blackwood. The Golden Knights now have scored a powerplay goal in their last four games.

The Golden Knights were able to take the lead with a big goal from the fourth line in the second. Brett Howden made a play on the boards to feed Keegan Kolesar, who made a nice shot-pass to William Carrier. Carrier scored his fourth goal of the season to make it 2-1.

In the later stages of the second period, the Devils were the better team. They outshot the Golden Knights 14-5 after the Carrier goal and had 15 shots on the period. But, again, Robin Lehner had to be sharp. He finished the night with 27 saves on 30 shots.

The Golden Knights were patient though and were finally able to break free with some insurance goals in the third period.

After receiving a long stretch pass from Reilly Smith, William Karlsson fired home a beautifully placed slapshot. Smith didn’t even look for Karlsson; he just fed him a pass that magically hit Karlsson tape-to-tape, and he scored. Unreal chemistry from the misfit line.

Just 33 seconds later, the Golden Knights added another one. Alex Pietrangelo caught the Devil’s defenseman pinching and sprung Roy and Mattias Janmark on a two-on-one. Janmark passed it over to Roy, and he scored to make it 4-1 Golden Knights.

But the Devils did not go away. Shortly after, the Devils cut the lead as they capitalized on a high sticking penalty from Coghlan. Tomas Tatar scored from the slot on the ensuing penalty. The Devils followed it up with another goal from their special teams, shorthanded.

In the dying seconds of a Golden Knights powerplay, Jimmy Vesey deflected Jonas Siegenthaler’s shot to make it a one-goal game. This was the Devil’s third shorthanded goal of the season and a huge one at that. Four goals in less than five minutes of game time saw the tight 2-1 game from the first two periods change dramatically.

Late in the third, Zach Whitecloud trucked Hughes with a massive open-ice hit which he likely learned from fellow defenseman Brayden McNabb. This gave the Golden Knights a bit of a spark, and they were able to kill off more clock against the Devils.

Devils head coach Lindy Ruff pulled Blackwood with just under two minutes remaining. Jonathan Marchessault made him pay as he scored his 13th goal of the season with the net empty. The Devils took a timeout, and afterward, Hughes scored his second goal of the game, or so he thought.

Peter DeBoer and the Golden Knights then challenged for an offside and were correct, and the goal to make it 5-4 came off the board, and it remained 5-3.

But before time ran out, a scrum ensued as Mason Geersten went after Alex Pietrangelo simply just to stir the pot. Equipment flew off, and Robin Lehner got into the mix, taking his helmet off and challenging the Devils to fight him. Max Pacioretty and Lindy Ruff even exchanged words on the two benches. Lehner was kicked out of the game, and  Laurent Brossoit came in to play the final 15 seconds.