FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Rangers - Game 31

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Rangers – Game 31

Franchise Sports Media

Golden Knights (19-11)  |  New York Rangers (19-7-4)

 

The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the New York Rangers on Friday night 3-2 in a shootout.

 

Jonathan Marchessault scored the shootout game-winning goal, and Laurent Brossoit stopped 27 of 29 shots for his sixth win of the season. Similar to their matchup against the New Jersey Devils, this was the first meeting between the Golden Knights and New York Rangers in over two years, thanks to COVID-19 shortened seasons.

Brossoit got the start for the Golden Knights‘ with it being a back-to-back. He technically played in Thursday night’s game against the Devils after Robin Lehner was kicked out. Shea Theodore returned for the Golden Knights after missing the last game with a non-COVID illness.

On the Rangers’ side, they were missing their leading scorer in Artemi Panarin. Panarin left midway through the Rangers’ victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday. He is listed as day-to-day with a minor lower-body injury.

There were also only three officials for the game as referee Kendrick Nicholson was unexpectedly absent. He was presumed to be out due to COVID-19 protocols.

The main storylines heading into Friday night’s game were the Golden Knights facing off against two former members of their organization in Ryan Reaves and Gerard Gallant. But many people overlooked the fact that Brett Howden would play his former team in the Rangers as well.

Howden himself was not one of these people as he scored the game’s first goal for the Golden Knights. The fourth-line of Howden, William Carrier, and Keegan Kolesar all got touches on the puck before Howden put it in the backdoor.

The Golden Knights had a grade-A chance to extend their lead on the powerplay in the first period. After some good puck movement, Max Pacioretty ripped a slapshot from his spot on the powerplay. But Rangers netminder Alexander Georgiev made an incredible save to deny him.

 

Both Pacioretty and Stone had their nine-game point streaks snapped in Thursday night’s game against the Devils. They were both held off the scoresheet once more in this game.

 

The Golden Knights had perhaps one of their worst periods of the season in the second.

The Rangers completely controlled the frame and limited the Golden Knights to only four shots in the frame. Just 17 seconds into the period, Mika Zibanejad scored off a simple wrist shot as he gained the zone. Zibanejad used Zach Whitecloud as a screen, and Brossoit could not track the puck, which made it 1-1.

The Rangers forced the Golden Knights to take a couple of penalties due to their sloppy play. First, Nicolas Roy went to the box for a slash. During the kill on Roy’s penalty, Alex Pietrangelo was called for a high-sticking penalty. But the Golden Knights never touched the puck. During the delayed call, the Rangers scored as Zibanejad fed Chris Kreider with a nice cross-ice pass.

The Golden Knights never touched the puck after the Pietrangelo penalty, and they had to kill another full penalty before getting back to five on five.

To start the third period, Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer shuffled up his line combinations. He swapped Nicolas Roy and William Karlsson and Mattias Janmark with William Carrier. Theodore and Pietrangelo also took a couple of shifts together.

 

The Golden Knights travel to Long Island to play the New York Islanders on Sunday. The game can be seen on AT&T SportsNet, with the puck dropping at noon.