FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Ducks - Game 9 - 2022

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Ducks – Game 9 – 2022

Franchise Sports Media

Golden Knights (7-2-0)  | Anaheim Ducks (1-6-0)

Logan Thompson gets his 2nd shutout of the season as the Golden Knights shut down the Ducks 4-0 on Nevada Day.

The Golden Knights continued their impressive streak of dominance when they hosted the pacific division rival, the Anaheim Ducks, on Nevada Day.

Before the puck dropped, the Golden Knights showed a special presentation video for Phil Kessel’s 990th Ironman record. Logan Thompson was in net, and the Anaheim Ducks had seven defensemen starting due to some injuries.

The first period started back and forth with no scoring, but Vegas mostly had the offensive momentum, outshooting the Ducks. Toward the end of the first period, the Knights went on the power play for the second time due to a roughing call on Ryan Strome. The second power play for the Knights paid off this time with a goal from Chandler Stephenson, assisted by Jack Eichel, to make the score 1-0.

Going into the second period with a one-goal lead, the Knights, throughout the past few games, haven’t been able to keep the momentum. They’ve been outscored by their opponents in the 2nd as well. But this time, those problems were solved after a penalty on Zach Whitecloud for fighting. The Knights answered back with a shorthanded goal by Riley Smith from an assist feed from William Karlsson to extend the VGK lead to 2-0.

“We’ve done a good job over the years creating offense shorthanded,” Smith said. “[Karlsson] does such a good job being able to steal pucks and getting up ice and make some creative plays. That’s what he did tonight. I just tried to put it on net, got a little bit lucky, but he did all the hard work there.”

In the middle of the second, William Karlsson made his presence felt again with another goal to make the score 3-0 now. Towards the end, the second Nicolas Roy scored to make it 4-0 after getting a bouncing puck behind the defense to chip it in.

The Golden Knights didn’t allow the Ducks to hang around, in-part due to Logan Thompson’s play.

At the start of the third period, the Ducks replaced their starting goaltender Ryan Gibson with backup goalie Anthony Stolarz. The switch would not matter, as the Ducks could not find any answers from Vegas, as the Knights were able to hold on to get a victory 4-0 and also get a shutout victory for Logan Thompson as he would end the night with 29 saves and get his second shutout of the season.

The Golden Knights have finally answered their second-period problems, which needed adjustment. If they want to make a deep playoff run, they must remain consistent.

“We have good offensive players,” Cassidy said. “We’re not a high-volume team. When the puck is on our stick, and we have time and space, we can make some plays and finish. Tonight was a good example. We didn’t dominate the shot clock by any means, and even some left on the table.”

Closing out games is not an issue for Vegas, but being outscored in the second is, though, and finally, they found the surge to overcome that problem.

The Golden Knights will be back home at T-Mobile Arena to play the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday at  5:00 pm. The game can be seen on AT&T Sports Net.