Knights, Utah HC put early finish to season collection

Thanks to the quirks of the NHL schedule, the Utah Hockey Club and the Vegas Golden Knights will play each other for the third time in November and also for the final time in the regular season on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights have won both of the first two meetings with their new neighbors. Vegas won the first contest 4-3 on Nov. 2 on home ice on a Brett Howden overtime goal, then rallied from a 2-0 second-period deficit 13 days later in Salt Lake City to pull out a 4-2 victory.

Both teams will be playing the second game of a back-to-back on Saturday.

Vegas, behind two goals by Howden and Ivan Barbashev, defeated NHL points leader Winnipeg 4-3 on Friday night while Utah garnered a point against the reigning Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers with a 4-3 overtime loss.

Howden tapped in a William Karlsson crossing pass by the left post with 4:05 remaining for the game-winner as the Golden Knights improved to 9-2-0 at home this season.

The contest came just one day after Vegas returned from a season-long five-game road trip that included stops in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Philadelphia and Wednesday in Denver against Colorado. The Golden Knights, however, didn’t show any signs of jet lag in one of their best home performances of the season.

“We’ve been away from home for a long time,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I think our guys are excited to get back here playing. I liked our energy. I thought we played really well coming off the road.”

“We’ve been playing pretty well,” added Karlsson, who played in his 700th career NHL game. “Long road trip and coming home for a back-to-back. I think we looked pretty good (Friday) and hopefully can come out the same way (Saturday).”

Vegas next will host the Oilers on Tuesday, providing a brief break.

Utah, despite blowing a 2-0 first period lead, did manage to pick up a point against the Oilers on Friday night, thanks to a Lawson Crouse goal early in the third period that tied the score 3-3. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins won it at 1:18 of overtime with a breakaway goal, beating Karel Vejmelka on his blocker side.

Edmonton scored three times in the second period, including power play goals by Leon Draisaitl and captain Connor McDavid, to take a 3-2 lead before Crouse scored his first goal since Oct. 24 in a loss to Colorado to tie it.

“Finally,” Crouse replied when asked for his reaction to scoring his fourth goal of the season. “I think it just speaks volumes to our character in our room, and there’s no quit in our team. We went right to the end.”

It was Utah’s fifth loss in the last seven games (2-4-1).

“Take the positives from this, move on and get ready for a big matchup tomorrow,” Crouse said. “We’ve got to move on quickly here. The goal is to come away with two points, not one.”

–Field Level Media