FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Rangers - Game 37

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Rangers – Game 37

Franchise Sports Media

Golden Knights (23-13-1)  | New York Rangers (22-9-4)

The Vegas Golden Knights applied pressure on offense to dominant a 5-1 win over New York Rangers.

VGK takes on the Rangers this season for the second time, following a 3-2 victory on December 17th. Jonathon Marchessault scored the winning goal in a third-round shootout, and the team hopes that momentum can help them break a two-game losing streak.

While the Knights entered tonight’s game having lost the last two, the Rangers were coming off a three-game win streak. Gerald Gallant and Ryan Reaves were welcomed back by fans gracefully, as their past contributions to the organization have not been forgotten. The Knights looked to be more patient on offense on the night, as the Rangers only allow 2.47 goals this season.

Nicolas Roy and Greg McKegg faced off to start the game, as Roy won it to start for the Knights. While the period started slowly offensively for both sides, the Knights showed out defensively with eight early blocks. The Rangers were unable to score on a power play, as Lehner started 8-8 on saves.

VGK ended the first period with some action as their first power play led to a Marchessault goal to make it 1-0. Marchessault continues his solid play against the Rangers, scoring his first goal in 6 home games with 17 goals on the season. Reily Smith and Nicolas Roy got assists on the play, as Alexander Georgiev looked for his team to bounce back on his rare mistake. However, the period could’ve been worse for the Rangers, as the Knights had many more good looks.

The Knights offense posted just one goal in the first on many great looks, and they looked to capitalize more in the 2nd.

The second started with immediate action for the Rangers, as 52 seconds in, Chris Kreider scored his 21st goal. With assists by Mike Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko, the game was quickly tied up at 1-1. However, the action didn’t stop there, as Mark Stone uses his IQ to score a goal of his own. Assisted by Evegnii Dadonov, Stone used his skate to guide his seventh goal of the season to make it 2-1 Knights.

After the officials reviewed, the score stood at 2-1 with 10 minutes to play in the second. However, the Rangers’ arguments were later put to rest, as Mattias Janmark scores his 7th goal to make it 3-1 soon after. Assisted by Keegan Kolesar and Ben Hutton, the Knights took their largest lead of the night to end the second period.

VGK looked to keep it going in the third period, and that’s precisely what they did 3 minutes in. Brett Howden would score his fourth goal of the season, but the second of the year against his former team. Then, the Knights would go up by three, assisted by Nolan Patrick and Dylan Coghlan.

The Knights continued to outshoot their opponents, as they’ve done so for 20 games in a row. Already leading 4-1, Marchessault later scores his second goal of the game, again assisted by Reily Smith to give them a comfortable lead towards the final minutes. Now leading 5-1, it can be considered a top offensive performance for the Knights this season, as they score five-plus goals for the thirteenth time this year.

The Rangers may be a top team in the league, but the Knights’ offense continues to prove deadly. There was a total of 14 points for the offense tonight to go along with five goals, The two-game slide of losses is now over for VGK, and they look to continue the pressure against Chicago next. The final was 5-1 in favor of the Knights, and two goals by Marchessault proved this to be one of the most dominant wins of the season for Las Vegas.

The Knights will be back on the ice Saturday against Marc-Andre Fleury and the Chicago Blackhawks. The game can be seen on ESPN+ with the puck dropping at 7:00 pm.