Vegas Golden Knights center William Karlsson, left, and Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Ben Hutton (17) celebrates after Karlsson’s goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Winnipeg Jets at T-Mobile Arena Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023.
Published Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023 | 9:45 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023 | 10:18 p.m.
Logan Thompson made 31 saves tonight for the Golden Knights in a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets at T-Mobile Arena.
Those saves weren’t the netminder’s only notable contributions on the stat sheet.
Thompson had the secondary assist on Jonathan Marchessault’s power play goal in the second period, when he sent an outlet pass up the ice to Mark Stone. Stone quickly sent the puck to Marchessault, who finished it for the first of his three goals on the night.
“We’ve been working on that at practice just with the goalies making a quick up and it worked tonight,” Thompson said. ”I hit Stoney, and Stoney makes a beautiful pass to Marchy, and Marchy finishes it. So it was perfect tonight.”
It was the first point in Thompson’s career.
“That was a hell of play,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Let’s face it, I didn’t see that coming. Good for Logan.”
Vegas was just getting started with the man advantage. About 90 seconds later, Ivan Barbashev recorded a power play goal, and Vegas was well on its way to another win in regulation to extend their impressive start to the season.
The defending Stanley Cup champions have recorded a point in all 11 games they’ve played to rank 10th all-time in league history for consecutive games with a point. The 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks tallied a point in 24 straight games.
“We aren’t celebrating October wins or November wins like they are playoff wins,” Cassidy said. “They enjoy winning, don’t get me wrong, but tomorrow is another day. Saturday is a new challenge.”
That new challenge is a showdown 7 p.m. Saturday against visiting Colorado in one of the biggest tests of the young season for the Golden Knights. The franchises are again considered two of the best in the Western Conference and could wind up having to go through each other in the playoffs.
Cassidy stressed the meeting with Colorado wouldn't be Vegas' only challenge in the next few days. The Golden Knights on Sunday play at the Ducks, having to face a team that's won five straight games — including four on an east coast trip — on the second leg of a back-to-back games.
"We got a good tuneup tonight," Cassidy said.
That tuneup included a goal and an assist from William Karlsson to go along with the fifth hat trick in Marchessault's career with the Golden Knights. Marchessault had an empty goal late in third period to cap the scoring.
"When you put in the work, sometimes you get rewarded and (it) just felt like that tonight,” Marchessault said. “Every night somebody else is stepping in, that’s the mentality we had last year and it was good to feel that I could help my teammates tonight.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
