Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore, center, celebrates with Jonathan Marchessault. left, and Nicolas Roy (10) after scoring the winning goal in overtime against the Montreal Canadiens at T-Mobile Arena Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022.
Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022 | 11:03 p.m.
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The Golden Knights will hit the halfway mark of the season in first place in the Pacific Division. Montreal has league’s worst record.
Yes, it came as no surprise to many that Vegas beat the Canadiens on Thursday night.
But that’s nowhere near the entire story, as Vegas needed a third-period equalizer, overtime and a season-high 53 shots to beat Montreal 4-3 at T-Mobile Arena.
“I thought we were the better team overall,” forward William Karlsson said. “They did a good job of coming back and taking the lead but overall I thought we had the advantage and deserved the extra point.”
Some stats to illuminate just how much Vegas dominated, courtesy of Natural Stat Trick: The Golden Knights led in shots (53-27), shot attempts (90-42), scoring chances (41-25), high-danger scoring chances (24-12) and expected goals (4.77-2.84).
And yet, more than halfway through the third, the Canadiens led 3-2 before a Jonathan Marchessault power-play goal evened the score and sent the contest to overtime. Robin Lehner made three massive saves early in the extra period, before Shea Theodore danced around Christian Dvorak and fired home the game-winner, pumping his fist in celebration.
“I think we’ve been struggling in those games when we have a lot of shots on goal and we don’t find a way to win games,” Marchessault said. “But tonight we did find a way and it’s always a positive and good teams find a way to win games.”
He’s right.
The Golden Knights have actually lost four of the last five games in which they’ve had 40 or more shots on goal, outshooting the opponent each time. Obviously shooting less isn’t the answer, but Vegas struggled with efficiency and finishing, even when the quantity was there.
For much of Thursday’s contest, it looked like it would be the same story.
Vegas scored at the 3:40 mark of the first and 11:46 into the second, only for Montreal to even the score before the period was out.
Mike Hoffman fired home a one-timer on the Canadiens first shot of the third period to grab their first lead of the game, and everyone had flashbacks to last summer when a better-on-paper Vegas squad was ousted in six games by the Canadiens.
But sometimes things work themselves out, as Vegas outshot the Canadiens 18-5 in the third period and capitalized on their power-play chances when they needed to. It wasn’t pretty, or how you want to beat the last-place team, but two points are two points.
“I thought we put in the right amount of work to deserve two points tonight,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “This league shows you, you don’t always get what you deserve but I thought we worked hard enough to earn two points tonight.”
Another encouraging sign was the play of Karlsson, who has a tough season marred by a broken foot that cost him more than a month. His production has also slowed, with just 11 points in 25 games coming into the night, a 16-goal, 36-point pace over 82 games.
But he was terrific on Thursday, scoring to put Vegas ahead in the second period and winning the draw then sliding the puck across the ice to Marchessault for the equalizer in the third. It was just his third multi-point game of the season, and second in his last six games.
“It’s nice to get rewarded. There’s some games where you create put you don’t put it in,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been playing pretty good, so it was nice to see them go in today.”
The victory puts a bow one of the more disappointing homestands in team history. Vegas lost five of its eight games, though with a shootout and overtime loss, still mustered eight points in the stretch.
Next week the Golden Knights face a nightmare of a road trip: four games through Washington, Carolina, Florida and Tampa Bay. It will be a massive test for the Golden Knights, so ensuring a victory tonight was key for some momentum heading to the weekend.
Which just made Theodore’s overtime winner all the more fun.
“It was definitely a big goal to finish the homestand like that, and head to the road with some positivity,” Theodore said.
