FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Blues - Game 16- 2022

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Blues – Game 16 – 2022

Franchise Sports Media

Golden Knights (13-3-0)  | St. Louis Blues   (5-8-0)

The St. Louis Blues spoiled the Golden Knights return home game, and snapped their 9 game winning streak losing 3-2 at The Fortress.

After a long and successful five-game road trip, the Golden Knights finally returned home to The Fortress at T-Mobile Arena to face the St. Louis Blues. The VGK was looking to continue their winning streak and extend it to 10 games, tying their longest win streak of 10 games from last season.

After being rested the last two games, Adin Hill started with his record as a starter still intact, 5-0-0.

The first period started unusually for the VGK. At the 10:13 mark, the Blues struck first when Brandon Saad scored his second goal of the year to make the score 1-0.

Later in the first, things will still favor the Blues when the Knights got a cross-checking penalty on Brett Howden. But the penalty would not bother the VGK. Chandler Stephenson was on a breakaway but did not score, but he beat his defender to the puck to set up a feed pass to Riley Smith. He would score a shorthanded goal to tie the game 1-1. The goal for Riley Smith would be his eighth goal of the year and his third shorthanded goal as well. The first period was even between both teams offensively, as the first ended tied at 1-1. 

Going into the second period, the VGK did not let their foot off the momentum from earlier in the first period. About two minutes into the second period, Phil Kessel would get his third goal of the year when his shot from inside the blue line went under the right arm of St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington. Paul Cotter got the assist to give the VGK the lead, 2-1, at the 17:57 mark of the second. 

The Golden Knights get into a lot of penalty trouble, and get the bad case of Blues

Penalties became a problem for the Knights throughout the game. The VGK was hammered with four total penalties, but their penalty kill unit successfully held off the Blues from scoring.

Despite Vegas enabling the Blues from getting any goals while on the power play, the Blues did answer back with a goal from Ivan Barbashev to tie the game 2-2.

Before Vegas could make any kind of adjustments, forty seconds later, the Blues scored again, this time by Ryan O’Reilly to give the Blues back the lead 3-2. With the VGK going into the third period down a goal, their offense could not find any answers to get back into the game as their nine-game winning streak was put to an end, losing 3-2.

Adin Hill ended the night with 25 saves but suffered his first loss as he started this season as a Golden Knight. VGK will lose, but these are adjustments that will be fixed later through this season. Coming back from a lengthy five-game road trip can be challenging. But rebounding from this loss and the mental mistakes will be the true test of this team as they look to make a deep playoff run.

The Golden Knights be home again The Fortress as they play against their rival the San Jose Sharks at the T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday. 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.