Golden Knights 4, Lightning 3: 3 Takeaways

The Golden Knights have a lot of impressive wins to their record this season. Tonight might be the most impressive.
After surrendering a 3-2 lead late in the third period, the Golden Knights got a goal from Shea Theodore with 2.3 seconds remaining in the third period to stun the league-leading Lightning at T-Mobile Arena.
For the Lightning, which entered the night with a 24-6-2 record, it snapped a seven-game winning streak.
While for the Golden Knights, besides adding an attention-grabbing victory, tonight's win improved Vegas' record to 22-9-2...only four points behind Tampa Bay for the best record in the league.
The win also moves the Golden Knights into first place in the Pacific Division.
Here are three takeaways from tonight's game.

1. Late Knight Heroics
What might be the most miraculous thing about the Golden Knights' hot streak is that virtually all of the team's wins are decided with late heroics.
Tonight, Shea Theodore scored the game-winning goal with 2.3 seconds remaining in the third period to lift the Golden Knights to victory. It was Vegas' fourth power-play goal of the evening.
Vegas is 7-1-1 in the month of December, and has accumulated 15 out of its last 16 available points.
But among those victories, this was the sixth time in the seven that the Golden Knights scored the decisive goal in the third period or later.
As exciting as watching this team play this way has been, the dramatic way it has won games has made it all that much more exciting. And tonight took the cake.

2. Haula Seemingly Always Scores Late
Among all the late heroics for the Golden Knights this month, nobody is responsible for more of them than Erik Haula.
Haula now has six goals in the month of December. Four of them are in the third period. In fact, the three that came before tonight were in the final 10 minutes of third periods.
Whether it was putting Vegas ahead (it didn't last) in the third period tonight, winning Sunday's game against the Florida Panthers or tying games late against the Nashville Predators or Anaheim Ducks, Haula has become maybe the team's most clutch goal scorer. And that includes James Neal.
Haula is also now on pace for a 35-goal season, after never having scored more than 15 in an NHL season before.
Now with 13 goals, Haula is only two goals shy of his career high, and has almost four months to set a new standard.

3. Fleury Sensational

The Golden Knights and Lightning were pretty much equal tonight. The shots were pretty much even, as was the play.
So while Marc-Andre Fleury didn't exactly steal this one tonight, his ability to rebound after surrendering two power-play goals in the first period was commendable. Especially against a team like the Lightnining, which has by far the highest scoring offense in the league.
Fleury finished with 35 saves on 38 shots, and is now 2-0-1 since returning from a concussion last week.
His two wins have come against powerful Penguins and Lightning teams, which is also worth noting.
When Fleury missed two months, there were some that questioned what sort of condition he'd be in when he returned. Safe to say, Fleury has silenced most of those questions over the past week.