The Golden Knights (13-5-2) won their fourth consecutive game on Wednesday with a 5-3 triumph over the Utah Mammoth (10-8-1) back on home ice at T-Mobile Arena.
HOW IT WENT DOWN
The Golden Knights opened the scoring 2:15 into the match when Mitch Marner faked a shot and instead gave a low pass to Jack Eichel, who sniped it high past Utah goaltender Sebastian Cossa from a sharp angle. It would be the first shot of the game and Eichel’s first power-play goal of the season. Nearly six minutes later, Utah tied the game 1-1 when Lawson Crouse scored off a rebound.
In the middle frame, Victor Olofsson scored his first goal since Oct. 6 when he sped down the middle to beat Cossa with a hard wrist shot, making it 2-1. Just 1:43 later, Ivan Barbashev capitalized off Olofsson’s accidental shot-pass and tapped in the puck after patiently waiting on top of the blue paint, extending the Vegas lead. Nearly four minutes later, Barbashev tallied a goal-of-the-year candidate, receiving a short pass at center ice, once again from Olofsson, and dancing past the Utah defense to slip it under Cossa for a 4-1 lead. Utah got one back with four minutes left in the second period when Jack McBain scored to cut the lead to 4-2.
Utah closed the gap in the third period, 4-3, when Dmitri Simashev shot the puck from afar. But just over a minute later, Vegas got one back when William Karlsson and Brett Howden played catch – Karlsson shooting and Howden’s stick ricocheting the puck into the net, closing out the 5-3 final.
