Golden Knights defeat testy Devils for third straight win

By Justin Emerson

Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021 | 8:05 p.m.

The Golden Knights won Thursday night, and you’ll never turn down a road victory. But it’s clear the Golden Knights weren’t pleased with their outing against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center. 

Vegas surrendered the first goal then scored four unanswered, and a three-goal lead should be it. The Devils scored twice more to bring the game back within a goal, but Vegas left New Jersey with a 5-3 victory after Jonathan Marchessault added an empty-net goal with 1:07 left.

“The story of the game is I liked our first, hated our second and in the third we were opportunistic,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “Tonight was one of those nights where we did just enough to win, and we’ll take the two points and move on.” 

The second period was the Golden Knights’ worst, as it’s the only period they were out-chanced and outshot, but still managed to extend their lead. The period started 1-1 and ended with a 2-1 Vegas lead thanks to a William Carrier redirect at 3:47 before the Devils tilted the ice the other way the rest of the period. 

In the third, William Karlsson and Nicolas Roy both took advantage of New Jersey’s press in the offensive one to break free with rush chances, and both buried their opportunities 33 seconds apart to extend the lead to 4-1. 

The Devils fought back with a pair, one on the power play and one short-handed, and even the empty-net goal didn’t allow Vegas to breathe. The Devils put the puck in the net with 12 seconds left, but replay review wiped it away after an offside challenge. 

The review put 25 seconds back on the clock, and that’s when things got testy. The Devils, who appeared to be upset by a hit from defenseman Zach Whitecloud on star forward Jack Hughes, lined up defenseman Mason Geertsen at forward to draw the Golden Knights’ ire. 

It worked, as he and Alex Pietrangelo got into a physical altercation, leading to a skirmish on the ice that included Vegas goalie Robin Lehner throwing off his glove, blocker and mask. 

“It’s a little blurry right now but everyone started to grab each other and (Mattias) Janmark is not a fighter and the guy who dropped gloves grabs him and I was just trying to get him to stop,” Lehner said. “I was trying to grab the ones who were showing that they were tough, but they didn’t really accept it.” 

The Golden Knights’ first goal of the game came from Dylan Coghlan on the power play, continuing a trend that plagued Vegas earlier in the year. They didn’t score until their 20th power-play try in their 11th game of the season. They had another stretch go longer than 10 attempts too, and it was fair to wonder if a power-play unit that struggled last year and in the playoffs would ever get going. 

Max Pacioretty scored last week against the Flyers late in the game, a goal that didn’t affect the outcome of that game but started a streak. Vegas scored two against the Wild and on its only opportunity Tuesday against the Bruins. 

On Thursday, the Golden Knights didn’t do much with their 5-on-3 time but at the other end of it capitalized on Coghlan’s one-time blast, his second goal of the year. 

The power play wasn’t perfect. It registered only four shots in 6:45 of ice time and conceded a short-handed goal the other way. But what was for the first month of the season the worst power play in the league is now clicking at 17.6%, escaping the bottom-10 in the league. 

The Golden Knights have won three in a row and six of seven, moving to a tie in points for second place in the Pacific Division (Calgary has the tiebreaker in points percentage). 

Next up is a meeting Friday night with the New York Rangers and two familiar faces: former Vegas fan favorite Ryan Reaves and Golden Knights inaugural coach Gerard Gallant.