Three goals in 5 minutes and 9 seconds. That was the whole game.
The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Utah Mammoth 5-3 on Wednesday night, Nov. 11, at T-Mobile Arena, 3780 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV 89158. It is Vegas' fourth straight win, and it opened a five-game homestand.
Jack Eichel struck first. His power play one-timer from the left face-off dot beat Utah at 2:15 of the first period, off a feed from Mitch Marner.
Lawson Crouse tied it 1-1 at 8:07 with a backhand, following an Andrew Peeke shot through a Jack McBain screen. Then Vegas took the game away.
Three Goals in 5:09 Broke the Game Open
Victor Olofsson put Vegas back ahead 2-1 at 3:07 of the second, on the power play. Eichel found him skating through the middle, and Olofsson finished above Sebastian Cossa's left arm.
Ivan Barbashev made it 3-1 at 4:51. Olofsson whiffed on his shot, the puck still landed on Barbashev's stick, and Barbashev scored into an open net.
"I fan on that pretty, pretty good and it ended up being a perfect pass," Olofsson said. "I wish I could have said it was a pass."
Barbashev struck again at 8:16 to make it 4-1. He took an Olofsson pass, skated through the neutral zone, went around Mikhail Sergachev, and scored through Cossa's five-hole while falling down.
The scoring run, start to finish:
- 3:07, second period: Olofsson, power play, 2-1 Vegas
- 4:51, second period: Barbashev, 3-1 Vegas
- 8:16, second period: Barbashev again, 4-1 Vegas
Utah coach Andre Tourigny pointed straight at that stretch. "We went through adversity in the game with some injuries, and I think we lost our focus and that cost us the game," he said.
Utah Pushed Back, and Howden Answered in 72 Seconds
Utah did not fold. McBain cut it to 4-2 at 16:39 of the second with a wrist shot from the left circle.
Dmitri Simashev made it 4-3 at 9:07 of the third, scoring from the high slot. The building got tight.
Brett Howden fixed that 1:12 later. He got a sliver of William Karlsson's shot for the redirection, and the lead was back to two goals at 5-3.
The final numbers tell the control story. Vegas outshot Utah 28-17, went 2-for-4 on the power play, and held Utah to 0-for-1. Carter Hart made 14 saves for Vegas, and Cossa stopped 23 for Utah.
Utah was shorthanded, too. Dylan Guenther is on injured reserve for 2-4 weeks, Logan Cooley sat out and is day to day, and Nick Schmaltz left in the second period and did not return.
Stone Is One Point From Tying the Franchise Record
Here is the fresh math most fans missed. Mark Stone assisted on Eichel's opening goal, and that assist pushed his Vegas total to 416 points.
Jonathan Marchessault holds the franchise record at 417 points. So Stone needs one more point to tie him, and two more points to own the record outright.
Marner is chasing history too. He has 76 assists in 99 career games with Vegas, and he is the third-fastest Golden Knight to reach 20 assists in a season, trailing only Eichel and Stone.
The chase continues Friday night, Nov. 13, when Vegas hosts Nashville at T-Mobile Arena. That is the actionable part for fans.
- One Stone point ties the franchise record.
- Two Stone points break it.
- A win would make it five straight for Vegas, now 13-5-2 with points in five straight games.
Utah falls to 10-8-1, with three straight losses. The homestand rolls on Friday.
