Golden Knights’ early lead finally sticks in victory over Avalanche

By Justin Emerson

Published Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021 | 8:30 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021 | 8:57 p.m.

Early on this season, the Golden Knights had a problem holding leads. They had scored first in all but one of their opening five games, and went on to lose all but one of them. Even in that one win, a 3-0 lead turned into a tie game before Vegas found the winner.

No such problem existed Tuesday night at Ball Arena in Denver.

Chandler Stephenson opened the scoring for the Golden Knights early, and it was all Golden Knights from there. Reilly Smith had a short-handed goal and Vegas held the Colorado Avalanche at bay the rest of the night to pick up a 3-1 victory and snap a four-game losing streak.

“That’s kind of Vegas hockey how we played tonight,” Stephenson said. “I think it’s been catching up to us. It’s just about time the whole game came together and I think tonight was one of those nights."

In their first four games of the year, the Golden Knights scored in the first nine minutes only to see their opponent eventually tie the game and, in three cases, win it. So when Stephenson scored two minutes into the period on a rebound, it was encouraging, but the Golden Knights knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Smith had the next one following a tremendous individual effort. While short-handed and at the end of his shift, he picked the pocket of Cale Makar at the blue line and went the other way alone. He was caught from behind by J.T. Compher but didn’t lose the puck, pulling out of his stride to protect it long enough to put a back-hander into the net for a 2-0 lead in the first period. It was the team’s first short-handed goal of the season.

It even got a little testy at the end, but unlike past leads, the Golden Knights didn’t lose this one.

"We've got a lot of new guys and it builds confidence in the group," defenseman Brayden McNabb said. "It shows us that if we play the right way we can win games."

It started when Keegan Kolesar took a nasty hit from Jack Johnson near the end of the second period, which resulted in a five-minute major. Nicolas Roy jumped in to stand up for Kolesar and fought Johnson, leading to a two-minute instigator penalty for Roy.

The result was two minutes of 4-on-4 play before a three-minute Vegas power play. Makar struck for Colorado during the 4-on-4, bringing the game within a goal heading to the second intermission. Vegas had a chance to reclaim momentum on the other side with a power play, but the unit went scoreless in three attempts on the night, remaining the only team in the league without a power-play goal at 0-for-14 on the season.

It was the kind of failed power play that could haunt a team, particularly one as dangerous as Colorado. Instead, the Golden Knights received another strong outing from Robin Lehner, who, according to early analytic returns, has had one of the best starts to the season by any goalie.

Lehner’s .904 save percentage entering the game ranked outside the league’s top-50, but that’s been more of a product of many chances Vegas has allowed this season. According to advanced stats site Evolving Hockey, Lehner gave up one goal on 2.38 expected goals by the Avalanche, boosting his Goals Saved Above Expected metric to 4.29, which ranks fourth in the NHL. Through all the Golden Knights’ early-season faults, Lehner has been perhaps their best player.

"Big one for Robin," coach Pete DeBoer said. "Robin’s been really solid but he needed to get rewarded with a win and he needed some goal support. We haven’t given him that and he got both those tonight.”

Lehner made 26 saves on the night, maintaining the Golden Knights’ lead and allowing Evgenii Dadonov to sink an empty-netter with 30 seconds left. It prevented a franchise-worst fifth loss in a row and allowed Vegas to exhale after a rough start to the season.

Vegas will play its first back-to-back of the year Wednesday night when it visits the Dallas Stars. It will be the first meeting between them since the 2020 Western Conference Final in the playoff bubble.

“You never want to be on a losing streak, but when you beat a team like Colorado, everything’s kind of out the window," Stephenson said. "You just kind of move on from there, and I think we’re going to go on a winning streak now."