Here are some observations from the game:
• Brett Pesce returned to the lineup after missing the previous 24 games with an upper-body injury. Fittingly, Pesce was welcomed back into the lineup with a penalty kill shift, his first of the game, and in an area of the game where Pesce may have been most missed.
Back, paired with Luke Hughes, which allowed Hughes to return to his natural side, he played 23:58 with three shots and three blocks.
“He was excellent. He was himself," head coach Sheldon Keefe said. "Probably fitting that his first shift is on the penalty kill and he made a couple plays there that the whole bench grew an inch when they see him out there making those types of plays.”
"It’s been killing me to not be able to be out (there) with the guys, super excited about this one and it was the perfect way, first game for me back, battle to the very end," Pesce said. "Four-on-threes, penalty kills, blocked shots, it was a nice game to get back.”
“His value to the team is as big as anybody in our group," Brown said of Pesce's return. "What he provides, the steadiness in his play, what he provides to the penalty kill alone, what he provides to the young players on our team that he plays with. He’s a really, really important part of this group.”
• A Golden Knights turnover along the half wall sparked Connor Brown’s second-period goal. Trailing the play from behind the Vegas net, Brown pounced on a loose puck, quickly gathered it, and drove to the crease. He froze Vegas goaltender Cart Hart with his initial move, then slipped the puck through the narrow gap between Hart’s skate and the post. The goal broke the 0-0 draw at 4:50 of the second period.
• It’s never just one player who makes all the difference, but a penalty kill that has struggled of late was clearly bolstered by Pesce’s return to the lineup. Thrust into action almost immediately after Jonas Siegenthaler took a penalty in the opening minute, New Jersey handled the kill with ease, using it as a springboard to generate momentum coming out of the early disadvantage.
“I was joking in there, saying maybe we planned it that way,” Keefe said of the early penalty. “Just get it right out of the way. But I thought the penalty kill was great, it’s terrible that the one goes in the way that it does at the end of the game but I just thought that’s a repeatable performance for the penalty kill that you want to continue to build on. There will be lots of good things to see there.”
Overall, the penalty kill went 1-for-3 in regulation, with the one goal; crushingly coming as the regulation-tying goal at the tail end of the third period. The penalty killers also had the task of killing off a penalty in overtime, which they did, bringing their game total to 1-for-4 and that one goal they did give up to Dorofeyev? An all-world shot.
“I think there’s one percent of the league that’s putting that puck where he put it, otherwise nothing was getting by Jake (Allen) tonight," Keefe said. "That was a great performance by him. If they were going to beat him, it had to be a shot like that.”
• The return of Pesce bumped Dennis Cholowski from the lineup against the Golden Knights. Brenden Dillon paired up with Colton White as the third pairing.
• New Jersey was just the fifth team to beat the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena this season.
• Vegas was playing without their star forward, Jack Eichel, and one of their top defensemen, Shea Theodore.
