BOSTON – Forward Tomas Hertl scored the game-winning goal with 1:10 remaining to help give the Vegas Golden Knights a 4-3 come-from-behind victory against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday.
Mark Stone had a goal and an assist. Pavel Dorofeyev, and Zach Whitecloud also scored. Shea Theodore and Jack Eichel each had two assists for Vegas (33-17-6), which ended its road trip 2-2-0.
Ilya Samsonov made 21 saves.
“I liked our game,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Our transition was good. Between the blue lines we managed pucks and got through there with speed at times. I thought we had the puck in their end for about 18 minutes in the second period and that goal from Whitecloud really helped. We need a break and we got it. We took care of business in the third.”
Golden Knights Stay Focused
Most Golden Knights will be off to exotic places like Maui, Costa Rica, and Turks and Caicos to spend the next two weeks away from the rink. Others will be participating in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Either way, it would have been easy for the team to look forward to the break.
“We have a veteran team. We’re a mature group. The break didn’t start today before the game. We had a job to do: come in here and win a hockey game,” Eichel said. “Both teams are battling for points and standings. They are a competitive team. They’ve been good for a long time. We did a lot of good things. Credit the guys for understanding that the break didn’t start after the game.”
Power Play Stays Hot
The Golden Knights got some timely goals from their power play against the Bruins.
The first goal off Stone’s tip slowed the Bruins’ momentum after going up 2-0. The Golden Knights thought they took a 4-3 lead when Dorofeyev scored again, but his goal was waved off due to goalie interference.
It didn’t matter too much as Hertl scored the game-winner moments later.
Vegas went 2-for-4 on the man advantage.
“We’ve been doing a really good job,” Hertl said. “We’re very confident in our power play. We are getting a lot of looks. We scored on the first one, then we have another one. When we get on the power play, we’re [thinking we’re] scoring right now. … Even if we don’t score we want to get the momentum on our side.”
Creating ‘Chaos’
The Golden Knights finished the game with 38 shots. They finished the four-game road trip with 148 shots on goal, which played a big role in generating some of the offense that came their way this trip.
The second and third goals showed how volume shooting can benefit the team.
Whitecloud’s goal came from a point shot that Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman initially stopped in his glove, but the puck fell out and slid across the goal line. Dorofeyev’s goal came off the threat of Theodore shooting, forcing Swayman to play the shot longer to give Dorofeyev an open net to shoot in.
“When we were struggling (offensively) we were trying to be too fancy,” Hertl said. “Sometimes you just have to put it on the net and create chaos and things will open up.”
Olofsson Hurt
Forward Victor Olofsson sustained an upper-body injury on his first shift.
“He’s doing better,” Cassidy said. “Obviously, he did not return to the game, and wasn’t able to, and wasn’t cleared to, but he’s doing better, and I would suspect he’ll be fine in the long run, but we’ll get a better update once he’s back in Vegas.”
It marked the second time this week that the Golden Knight shad to play with 11 forward. The first was against the New York Islander when Raphael Lavoie was scratched due to illness.
“We did it the other night. We had an illness late. Sometimes, guys look at it as an opportunity for more minutes,” Cassidy said. “You’re juggling a lot. Sometimes, you don’t want to lose people when you’re mixing and matching like that.”
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