Blog: Jonathan Marchessault overtime penalty shot leads Golden Knights to win

By Case Keefer (contact)

Published Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 | 3 p.m.

Updated Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 | 8:24 p.m.

Take a deep breath, Vegas Golden Knight fans.

Hope is not lost, not after the Golden Knights ended an up-and down homestand with an 4-3 overtime victory against the Ottawa Senators Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena to snap a two-game losing streak. Jonathan Marchessault scored on a penalty shot at 2:24 of overtime after he was taken down from behind on a breakaway, sliding a puck right between Craig Anderson’s leg and the post.

For a while, it looked like Vegas was bound to suffer the same fate as they did in losses to Tampa Bay and Vancouver. Although the Golden Knights controlled much of the action, the Senators scored the game’s first two goals.

Matt Duchene was in the right place to send a loose puck past Marc-Andre Fleury in the first period for the game’s initial goal. Vegas had a number of chances to tie, including three power plays, but Anderson — who had 50 total saves ­— turned away everything sent his way.

The Senators, on the other hand, scored on their first power play early in the second period when Bobby Ryan bounced a pass off the boards from Mark Stone past Fleury, who finished with 19 saves of the night.

With the building mostly silent and Vegas staring at adding to a potential losing streak, it needed someone to step up and provide a comeback opportunity. That someone was Alex Tuch, who created a turnover in the defensive end, raced the puck down the ice and put a shot between Anderson’s leg to cut it to a one-goal game.

Three minutes later, Ryan Reaves scored his first career power-play goal off of a Colin Miller rebound.

In the third period, Ottawa’s Ryan Dzingel and Tuch exchanged goals in less than 30 seconds to ensure overtime. Vegas bungled both an odd man rush and breakaway in overtime before Marchessault refused to be denied.

The Golden Knights knot up their record at 5-5-1 going into a pair of road games at Nashville and St. Louis before returning to T-Mobile Arena next Saturday against Carolina.

Golden Knights, Senators tied at second intermission

The Golden Knights could salvage a winning homestand yet.

It looked extremely unlikely when they went down 2-0 to the Senators early in the second period when Bobby Ryan scored on a power play. Vegas kept smothering Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson with shots, however, and finally got a couple through near the end of the frame to tie the score.

First, Alex Tuch changed the whole mood at T-Mobile Arena when he went from one end to the other before sticking a put in the back of the net and through Anderson’s legs. Three minutes later, Vegas scored on a power play for the first time in four chances tonight.

And it came from the most unlikely source. Ryan Reaves scored his first career power play goal with assists from Colin Miller and Erik Haul.

Vegas has built a 37-18 shots-on-goal edge, and will be favored to improve its record to 3-1-1 during the home stand in the final 20 minutes.

Senators lead Golden Knights 1-0 at end of the first period

The first period felt awfully familiar for the Golden Knights.

They held the puck in their zone for the majority of the action, and managed 17 shots on goal but none of them got past Craig Anderson. Meanwhile, Ottawa’s goal was eerily reminiscent of Tampa Bay’s first-period goal from Friday’s game.

Much like the Lightining’s Tyler Johnson, the Seantors’ Matt Duchene pounced on a loose puck in front of Marc-Andre Fleury and fired him past it. Ottawa didn’t get a lot of other opportunities — it only had seven total shots on goal — but that was enough.

Vegas failed to score on its first power play, and will return to the ice with 29 seconds left on its second. Ottawa defenseman Mark Borowiecki, who’s off a suspension for elbowing, leveled Cody Eakin near the end of the period and came down with two major penalties, fighting and elbowing, when he engaged in a fight with Jon Merrill.

Both Eakin and Merrill, who appeared to get hit cleanly with a couple of punches, went directly to the locker room after the altercation.

Pre-game

Despite the Golden Knights’ season-long homestand ending this evening on an NFL Sunday, none of the players have channeled their inner Aaron Rodgers.

Surely at least one or two of the Golden Knights are tempted to plea a suddenly restless fan base to relax going into a 5 p.m. game against the Ottawa Senators tonight at T-Mobile Arena. Tensions are high with Vegas having lost two in a row and sitting in second-to-last place in the Pacific Division at 4-5-1.

Some fans even booed Vegas’ NHL-worst power play and left before the third period in a 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday, before taking to social media to air out frustrations.

The Golden Knights seem more composed — and they have reason to be. Vegas hasn’t played poorly to start the season.

It’s underlying numbers are quite strong, in fact, and their fortunes should turn around if they keep up the same level of offensive aggression.

“We’re out-chancing, getting more shots than most teams,” Coach Gerard Gallant said after the loss to the Lightning. “But we’ve just got to get hungrier.”

Of course, those words begin to sound hollow when they’re muttered after every loss. And a loss to the Senators would arguably be the Golden Knights’ worst of the season.

After trading All-Star defenseman Erik Karlsson — a long-time Golden Knights’ target — to San Jose, most hockey experts pegged Ottawa as the league’s worst team and assumed it was trying to tank this season. The Senators have been better than that — they even had a recent three-game win streak — but they’re still on a different trajectory than the Golden Knights, which hoped to compete for the Stanley Cup this season.

Injuries haven’t helped Vegas, and it’s dealing with another major one against Ottawa with second-line winger Max Pacioretty considered day-to-day after leaving early in the Tampa Bay game. Tomas Hyka will rejoin the lineup because of the injury and likely play alongside Alex Tuch and Erik Haula on a second line that looks nothing like the one expected at the beginning of the season.

Pacioretty and Paul Stastny, who could miss up to three months with a lower-body injury, were the Golden Knights’ big offseason acquisitions and supposed to give the team an offensive boost. Their absences are just another break that’s gone against Vegas.

But the Golden Knights refuse to panic.

“We just have to keep focusing on throwing more pucks to the net whether it’s better body position in front of net, trying to get pucks on net,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “Hopefully, it will come.”

Keefer’s Prediction: Golden Knights 3, Senators 0

Season record for predictions: 3-4

Pick to score the Golden Knights’ first goal: Jonathan Marchessault

Season record for first goal scored: 1-for-7

TV: AT&T Sports Net (DirecTV 684, Cox 1313, CenturyLink 1760)

Radio: Fox Sports 1340 AM and 98.9 FM

Betting line: Golden Knights minus-240, Senators plus-200; over/under: 6 (minus-110, plus-110)

Golden Knights (4-5-1) (2-2-1 home)

Coach: Gerard Gallant (second season)

Goals leader: Jonathan Marchessault (5)

Assists leader: William Karlsson (6)

Expected goalie: Marc-Andre Fleury (2.45 gaa, .900 save percentage)

Ottawa Senators (4-4-1) (1-2-0 road)

Coach: Gary Boucher (third season)

Goals leader: Mark Stone, Maxime Lajoie (4)

Assists leader: Thomas Chabot, Chris Tierney (6)

Expected goalie: Craig Anderson (3.50 gaa, .905 save percentage)

Golden Knights expected game day roster

Forwards (12): Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, William Carrier, Ryan Carpenter, Cody Eakin, Erik Haula, Tomas Hyka, William Karlsson, Oscar Lindberg, Jonathan Marchessault, Ryan Reaves, Reilly Smith, Alex Tuch

Defensemen (6): Deryk Engelland, Nick Holden, Brayden McNabb, John Merrill, Colin Miller, Shea Theodore

Goalies (2): Marc-Andre Fleury and Malcolm Subban

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.