Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Slow start no big deal for Golden Knights in Anaheim

Golden Knights Ducks

Members of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrates after a goal by defenseman Shea Theodore as Anaheim Ducks center Antoine Vermette skates by during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017.

The Golden Knights are playing like they have amnesia, and that's a good thing.

The team possesses many qualities that have inspired the hot start, perhaps none more important than a short memory.

Ask any athlete and he’ll tell you how important confidence is in sports, and the Golden Knights have plenty of it as they lead the Western Conference after a 4-1 win Wednesday night in Anaheim.

Confidence can be fragile and shaken with a single mistake, but through 35 games that doesn’t seem to be the case with Vegas. They are an impressive 9-8-2 this season when the opponent scores the first goal.

The Golden Knights surrendered a goal only 1:40 into the game on Wednesday but went the following 58 minutes without allowing another while scoring four unanswered goals of their own.

“We just try not to think about it,” Golden Knights forward William Karlsson said. “We don’t panic. There’s still a lot of hockey left, so we just keep believing. We are a good team and we know we can do it. It’s all about confidence and not giving up.”

Perhaps no play personifies the team’s fortunate case of amnesia more than the eventual game-winning goal by Cody Eakin.

Just minutes prior, Eakin committed an uncharacteristic penalty for roughing Ducks’ forward Ryan Getzlaf. He spent two minutes in the penalty box knowing he put his team in a terrible spot down a man. That’s especially true in this case because Eakin is one of the Golden Knights' best penalty killers.

Eakin didn’t have time to dwell, as the second he stepped out of the box he was fed the puck with a breakaway chance. He raced down the ice and slid the puck between Ducks goalie John Gibson’s legs to give the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead.

“It’s a good way to get your team back for taking the penalty,” Eakin said. “We are playing the right way and we are playing hungry. It’s usually a different guy every night and it’s been working for us, so we are just going to stick with it.”

The Golden Knights have the best win percentage in the entire NHL when trailing after the first period (.444), and the second period (.400).

On average this season, the team trailing entering the third period wins only 14 percent of the time, but the Golden Knights have won four of the 10 games they trailed entering the final period.

“It’s a good feeling knowing that we can come back when we have a slow start,” said Karlsson, who scored his 17th goal of the season early in the third period. “It’s a good strength to have.”

The Golden Knights were dominated by Anaheim early in the game, getting outshot 15-8 in the first period.

“It was a tough start but after that I thought we played a hell of a 50 minutes,” Gallant said. “When you come on the road and play a team like Anaheim, and you give them five shots in the third period, you know your team is playing real well.”

They also fell behind 2-0 in recent games against the Panthers and Lightning. In those contests, the Golden Knights stormed back to score five unanswered goals to beat the Panthers and came back for a last-second win over the Lightning.

“I think just resiliency,” Golden Knights’ goalie Malcolm Subban said. “We play a full 60-minute game and that helps us a lot. It’s not easy to do, but we’ve done it consistently and that’s a huge reason why we’ve played so well.

“Our biggest trait is that we are resilient and we don’t give up,” Subban said, “and I think that shows up in our record.”

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