The Vegas Golden Knights pulled off their 12th come-from-behind win of the season with a 6-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Vegas is now 11-2-1 all-time against Seattle.
The evening marked Chandler Stephenson’s return to the Fortress; he finished the game with two assists.
For the fifth game in a row, the Golden Knights surrendered the first goal of the night. Just eight seconds into a power play, Vince Dunn beat Ilya Samsonov from the point 2:34 into the contest.
Stephenson recorded the secondary assist on the play for the 200th assist of his career.
Shortly after the Golden Knights paid tribute to the former Vegas pivot, Stephenson got a shorthanded breakaway but lifted the puck over the net.
It took a while for Vegas to find its footing, but eventually Keegan Kolesar got a breakaway of his own to knot things up at 1-1. Victor Olofsson’s feed through traffic caught Seattle in a line change to set up Kolesar’s eighth of the season, tying his career high in just 33 games.
From there, it was all Vegas.
Bruce Cassidy promoted Brett Howden to the top line, and the move paid off immediately. Just 71 seconds after Kolesar’s equalizer, the Golden Knights grabbed a 2-1 lead on a fantastic play by Jack Eichel, who stripped the puck behind the net before finding Howden in front for his 13th of the year.
The Eichel and Mark Stone combination struck once again, this time teeing up Nic Hague, who found twine on a curl-and-drag wrist shot to put Vegas up 3-1 with 2:12 remaining in the first. It was Eichel’s second assist of the night, marking the 15th time this season he has recorded multiple points.
The three unanswered Vegas goals came in the span of 5:09.
Vegas remained in control in a scoreless second period, holding Seattle to 0.23 expected goals and two scoring chances at 5-on-5. It was a stifling defensive effort by the home team, which outshot the Kraken 11-6.
After being benched for the second half of the first period, Olofsson and Pavel Dorofeyev joined Tanner Laczynski on a new-look line, which generated several scoring chances.
The Golden Knights continued to push in the third period, and William Karlsson scored for the second game in a row to extend Vegas’ lead at 8:09. Kolesar’s strong night continued as he set up the deflection goal, which Karlsson scored between his legs.
Despite holding a three-goal lead, Vegas didn’t sit back.
Tanner Pearson’s drive to the net led to an extended shift for Vegas. Eventually, a Noah Hanifin touch pass kept the play alive as he got the puck to Stone, whose patient stick work opened things up for Hanifin to strike from the circle for his first goal since Nov. 6.
But the Kraken didn’t go quietly. The Golden Knights took another penalty — their fourth of the night — to set up a Seattle power play. For the second time, the Kraken broke through with the extra man, as Jaden Schwartz cut the deficit to three with 6:02 remaining. Once again, Stephenson picked up an assist on the goal.
Seattle pulled the goalie with more than three minutes remaining, but Stone hit the empty net with 1:09 on the clock to seal the 6-2 win. It was his seventh goal of the year and first since returning from injury; Howden picked up the lone assist on the play.
It was another period in which Vegas outplayed its opponent. The Golden Knights scored three goals and outshot Seattle 14-9. In the end, the Golden Knights held Seattle to fewer than 10 shots in all three periods.
The Golden Knights improved to 22-8-3 overall and 13-3-0 on home ice with the win, their third straight.
The top line with Howden combined for seven points, with all three members recording multi-point efforts and finishing with plus-four ratings.
That being said, the line of Kolesar, Karlsson and Tomas Hertl was excellent. The trio led 19-8 in Corsi, 12-4 in shots, 9-3 in scoring chances and managed an 80.02 percent expected goal share in 11:33.
But it was a complete team effort on both sides of the puck. Ten different players found the scoresheet, and 16 of 18 skaters recorded a shot, with Pearson and Laczynski being the lone exceptions (though Pearson had a breakaway attempt).
It wasn’t a perfect night. Vegas took four penalties and lost the special teams battle. Their lone power play of the game was somewhat disastrous before being cut short, and Vegas allowed two power-play goals.
However, it was another impressive performance and a decisive win.
For the second game in a row, the Golden Knights responded with at least three unanswered goals after falling behind 1-0. Despite yet another slow start, the Golden Knights took control for the final 52 minutes of the game.
Samsonov finished the night with 21 saves on 23 shots for a .913 save percentage. He wasn’t tested much and wasn’t particularly sharp, but he didn’t need to be because the Golden Knights didn’t give up much.
The Golden Knights are 7-1-0 this month and will wrap up this pre-holiday homestand Monday night against the Ducks.
