Brandon Wade / Associated Press
Vegas Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty (67) battles Dallas Stars goaltender Ben Bishop (30) and defenseman Roman Polak (45) for a rebound during the second period of an NHL hockey game Friday, Dec. 13, 2019, in Dallas.
Friday, Dec. 13, 2019 | 9:09 p.m.
Vegas Golden Podcast
Catching up, figuring out
Justin Emerson and Case Keefer try to make sense of the Vegas Golden Knights' seemingly never-ending cycle of ups and downs as we draw towards the midpoint of the season.
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It was a minor change, one that didn’t immediately impact the end of the game, but a noticeable change, nonetheless. The Golden Knights beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 in overtime on Friday at American Airlines Center, and it was in small part to a new overtime formation.
It was the second shift of overtime with an offensive draw coming to the right of Dallas goalie Ben Bishop. William Karlsson and Reilly Smith had just skated to the bench after their shift, and Vegas needed two new forwards.
In past games, this was Paul Stastny time. He is reliable with faceoffs and offensive enough that he’s a safe bet for overtime. Instead, coach Gerard Gallant sent Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone, two wingers, out to take the draw. Pacioretty, with his career 42.7% success rate, took the faceoff.
He lost. It was a mismatch against Dallas’ Tyler Seguin (57.4% win rate this year) and the Stars controlled the puck, went down the ice and nearly scored. They didn’t though, and it set up Shea Theodore springing Pacioretty down the wing for the game winner.
Gallant knew Pacioretty had little chance of beating Seguin on the draw. He was willing to take a chance that with Stone and Theodore on the ice to support him, the Golden Knights could survive the push if Dallas gained possession until they had a chance to counter-strike.
“’D’ zone I’d worry about it but in the offensive zone, no,” Gallant said. “They’re two good hockey players and I wanted to get them out there. We all talked about getting the overtime better a little bit, so we tried something different and it worked.”
The idea was that Pacioretty and Stone are so good together, it doesn’t make sense to not allow them on the ice together at 3-on-3, even if it’s at the expense of potentially losing a faceoff. Besides, the Golden Knights were 1-5 in games decided in overtime this year, so having arguably your two best players on the ice together was a gamble worth taking.
Pacioretty has scored in three straight games, and with a goal and an assist Friday, he has a team-best 30 points in 35 games this season. He didn’t record his 30th point until his 45th game last year.
“We have so many good players on this team that bounces here and there anyone could be in that position,” Pacioretty said of leading the team. “We just feel that our depth right now is really strong and any given night anyone can step up and be the difference-maker.”
Last year, of course, Pacioretty was traded during training camp and had to uproot his life to move to Vegas without much lead time. This season he was able to spend a whole summer knowing where he was going to play, and said before the season that it led to a new comfort level for him.
It’s showing now. His 71-point pace would break his personal best of 67 points set twice, most recently three seasons ago. He had 22 goals and 40 points last season.
“Coming from a different team, sometimes it takes awhile to get the chemistry,” said Vegas goalie Malcolm Subban, who made 28 saves in the win. “Some guys never get it on teams, but it’s starting to come together for our group for sure.”
Pacioretty’s goal, a breakaway that beat last year’s Vezina finalist, will grab the headlines, but he also had a second-period assist, a little kick-pass to break loose Chandler Stephenson for his second goal as a Golden Knights.
Stephenson played mostly bottom-six minutes with Washington and getting to play with the likes of Pacioretty and Stone is something he has enjoyed immensely.
“Playing with those two guys, you’ve just got to get open and they’ll find you,” Stephenson said. “All-Stars in my opinion, so it’s fun. Slowly building some consistency with them and getting familiar with one another, but they make the game easy.”
The overtime win was bog for Vegas after losing the lead with 5:11 left in the third period. The Golden Knights played a tight defensive game in the third, allowing only five shots on goal in the nearly 15 minutes of game time before the Jamie Benn goal.
But the Golden Knights will take the win to make a happy flight home. A split in two road games against St. Louis and Dallas is nothing to scoff at, and they head home for three of their last five before the Christmas break.
Friday’s game was similar to Thursday’s loss to the Blues with one major exception. In both games the Golden Knights played two strong periods with one bad one. The bad one cost them on Thursday, but they weathered the first-period storm Friday, thanks to Subban’s 15-save period.
They kept the game within reach on Friday. And in the end, they were able to skate off in overtime victorious.
“It feels good, because we saw the difference tonight of when we play the right way and the wrong way,” Pacioretty said. “To play that way for two periods we deserved, I felt, to come out with a win. Luckily, we were able to.”
Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at twitter.com/@j15emerson.
