John Locher / AP
Vegas Golden Knights center Paul Cotter, center, celebrates after scoring against the San Jose Sharks during the third period Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, in Las Vegas.
Published Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023 | 9:38 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023 | 10:42 p.m.
It was nowhere near the offensive pace of the previous three games. It was certainly not the prettiest under any circumstance.
The Golden Knights lose this game if this was pre-All-Star break for myriad factors. But despite awful special teams play, William Carrier scored with 16.6 seconds remaining to give Vegas a 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.
After Chandler Stephenson won an offensive-zone draw from the left circle, the puck kicked back to defenseman Shea Theodore. His shot went wide, but Stephenson gathered the puck on the left side. Carrier was left all alone on the other side of the crease to bury his 15th goal of the season in a wide-open net for the win.
"I almost feel like I'm back in juniors right now," said Carrier, who once posted a 70-point season with Cape Breton of the QMJHL. "A lot more poise, a lot more skills, and some Grade-A guys."
Carrier said it wasn't a designed play for Theodore to shoot that off the boards. The puck just managed to find Stephenson with no one picking up Carrier.
"You can't get too cute," Carrier said. "A lot of our 17 goals [in the last three games], 15 came three feet away from the net. These goals, we kind of got away from it. We thought we were going to be cute and start saucing it. We got back to taking a shot, high screen, the goalie doesn't see it, Stevie gets it back, I get it, and put it in. Those goals are big for us."
Paul Cotter scored the first goal for the Golden Knights (33-18-4), who won their fourth straight game since coming out of the bye week.
At 40 minutes in, that wasn't looking likely.
Everything from an on-ice standpoint trickled in favor of Vegas. Between dominating at 5-on-5 for the entire first period and getting some looks on the power play, it looked like it was trending toward another offensive outburst, where the Golden Knights scored 17 goals in the last three games.
But Vegas had no answer for San Jose goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, who put forth a superstarlike effort with 36 saves.
Kahkonen turned aside all 14 shots in the first period, followed by eight more in the second. His play allowed San Jose to break the ice late in the second when Alexander Barbanov gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 17:04 of the middle frame.
Opposite Kahkonen, however, was another strong outing from Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill. Making his second consecutive start — the first instance for Hill this season — he wasn't making the flashy saves that his opponent 200 feet away from him was making, but he made key stops to keep his team in it.
"I feel good about my game right now," Hill said. "I think the guys on the ice, you can see the product, it's unreal right now."
Hill did so long enough for Jack Eichel to find a streaking Cotter down the right side at 6:22 of the third, tying the game. Cotter extended his goal streak to three games, while Eichel extended his point streak to three games (five points).
"Their goalie made some big saves. I think they got some breaks, too," Eichel said. "They played hard and they didn't give us a ton."
The Golden Knights needed every one of Hill's 26 saves to offset what was an abysmal night of special teams. Vegas went 0-for-7 on the power play for the second time in franchise history, a pristine chance to put the game away much sooner.
Vegas just had no answer for the fourth-best penalty kill in the league. Since Jan. 14, the Golden Knights are 1-for-28 on the man advantage.
"When you don't score on the power play, sometimes the energy feels bad and guys start panicking," Carrier said.
But if the conversation before the All-Star break was that the Golden Knights just needed to find any way to win, this game will not be an exception to that rule.
Despite running into a hot goalie and failing on the power play, Vegas still found a way to win. That same logic will apply Saturday when the Golden Knights host the reigning three-time Eastern Conference champion — and two-time Stanley Cup champion — Tampa Bay Lightning for the first meeting this season.
"It's not easy to win in this league," coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We stuck with it. Came back in the third period to win a hockey game, and that's not easy to do, either. There's things we need to fix, but I'm happy we came out of the right side of things."
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
