Golden Knights make statement in overtime win over Blues

By Justin Emerson

Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 | 6:42 p.m.

Marc-Andre Fleury had a reaction similar to most Golden Knights fans after Saturday night’s comeback overtime win against the St. Louis Blues.

“Oh God, it feels good, man,” the Vegas goalie said after the game.

It’s the kind of win a team can look back on after a postseason run and point to as a moment that catapulted them to the upper echelon of teams in the league. That’s where the Golden Knights are now after erasing a three-goal deficit to beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Blues 5-4 in a statement win at T-Mobile Arena. It was just the third Vegas win in eight all-time meetings against St. Louis.

“Tonight is a huge win for us,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “For our team to come back and battle back and never quit and find a way in overtime to get that two points is big for us.”

Vegas had lost all 14 games this season when falling behind by two goals, and had never in its three-year history returned from a three-goal hole. The Golden Knights allowed the first three goals of the game and looked like they didn’t belong on the same ice as the Blues through the first 30 minutes.

Sometimes all a team needs is a spark though, something to show that they have life and weren’t going to roll over for the big bad Stanley Cup champions. That was Ryan Reaves at 13:10 of the second, scoring just minutes after Vegas recorded its first shot of the period. He won a puck battle in front of the net and pushed home a rebound to cut the deficit to 3-1.

“We came out in the second and wanted to definitely put a little bit of a better brand of hockey on the ice and after the first five, six, seven minutes I thought we started to do that,” Reaves said.

Paul Stastny scored not long after and suddenly the Golden Knights were down just a goal going into the third period. There was a feeling at that point inside the arena that not only did the Golden Knights belong there, but that they were about to flip the script on St. Louis.

Third period goals from Nicolas Roy and Reilly Smith gave the Golden Knights at 4-3 lead, capping a string of four unanswered goals that accounted for the most notable comeback in the franchise’s brief history.

“Never say never in this league,” Gallant said. “We can’t a look at a team and say, ‘Well they won the Stanley Cup so they’re a better team than us.’ We don’t coach like that and I don’t want to play like that.”

The Blues eventually re-tied the game, a power-play missile from David Perron doing the damage with 7:10 left in regulation. It stayed tied through the end of the third ,and when overtime arrived, it felt like it wasn’t enough for the Golden Knights to bank a point and call it a night.

But Chandler Stephenson made sure the fans went home happy. He put in a yeoman’s effort on the final shift of the game, working extended time in the offensive zone, backchecking all the way to his own net and sliding the breakaway goal into the net for the decisive goal.

It was an open-ice shift that felt like it lasted more than the 47 seconds than it did, so he was pretty pleased the puck went in for more reasons than the obvious.

“Having a little bit more ice, it’s not too much stopping and starting,” he said. “Just tried to keep my momentum going. It would have been pretty tough to get back if I missed it.”

Gallant walked out of his postgame press conference after the Thursday night win against Flyers, taking exception to a question about the team’s struggles against the league’s best teams. At that point the Golden Knights were 4-7-2 against the 11 teams above them in the standings.

Now though, Vegas has won two in a row against those teams and five of seven against teams currently in a playoff position. They’ve won four in a row overall and seven of eight at T-Mobile Arena.

Whatever issues existed early in the year appear to be gone. What’s known for sure is the Golden Knights turned in one of their finer outings of the year and one of the best regular season wins in team history. And against the defending champs, there’s no doubting that they beat a good team.

“I’ve been hearing people say that we can’t beat a good team, but I think the last couple of weeks I think we’ve proved that that’s wrong,” Reaves said. “To be a contender and be a top team and a team that wants to win a Cup, you’ve got to beat teams like that. To come back like that is definitely a big boost for us.”

Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at twitter.com/@j15emerson.