The Vegas Golden Knights scored two weird objectives — one close to the top of regulation and one in additional time — to beat the San Jose Sharks 4-3 of their first highway sport of the season, which was additionally the Sharks’ season opener.
Reilly Smith scored the winner in additional time for his thirty sixth profession game-winning objective. Surprisingly, that is the third straight yr through which the Sharks have allowed a game-tying objective with lower than two minutes left and gone on to lose in additional time or shootout in both their first or second sport of the season.
Recreation Recap
The Sharks obtained the very best scoring alternatives within the early minutes of the primary interval, with the Golden Knights mixing in a pair as nicely. San Jose broke by way of first after a Ty Dellandrea move in the direction of the crease was a scramble play on the internet. Following a few deflections, Jeff Skinner knocked within the puck for his first Sharks objective and 700th profession level.
Vegas responded a couple of minutes later when Brett Howden picked up a unfastened puck on the prime of the Golden Knights’ offensive zone and drove to the online, splitting defenders earlier than maneuvering round Alex Nedeljkovic to tie the sport. Though Keegan Kolesar and Ben Hutton obtained assists, the play was virtually totally Howden’s and successfully an unassisted objective.
Though the Golden Knights obtained an influence play and each groups — particularly Vegas — obtained a pair extra good possibilities, the sport remained tied 1-1 on the finish of the interval.
Within the second interval, the Sharks dominated the primary half thanks to 2 fast Vegas penalties which gave them a five-on-three energy play. They capitalized on the two-man benefit by controlling possession and getting the puck to the entrance of the online, the place a William Eklund shot try deflected off Brayden McNabb and bounced to Alexander Wennberg, who scored from simply exterior the crease to present the Sharks the lead.
Maybe motivated by their early-period struggles, Vegas started to place strain on the Sharks quickly after the objective, resulting in a hooking penalty close to the online on Shakir Mukhamadullin. On the following energy play, the Golden Knights used nice puck motion to arrange Pavel Dorofeyev, who scored his fourth objective of the season in lower than two full video games.
Following a back-and-forth first couple minutes to the third interval, the Sharks put a barrage of pucks to the online, lastly placing one house when Philipp Kurashev tipped in a Dmitry Orlov shot. Subsequently, each groups had attractiveness, most notably an important save by Akira Schmid on Kurashev to maintain Vegas inside one. On San Jose’s finish, the Sharks killed a vital penalty with lower than 5 minutes remaining to carry the lead.
However nothing might have ready anybody for the ultimate jiffy of this sport. As soon as Vegas pulled Schmid for an additional skater, Eklund narrowly missed an empty internet twice. After the second try, Jack Eichel skated up the puck and dumped it in from middle ice, solely to have it take an absurd bounce and slip by way of Nedeljkovic to tie the sport. The Sharks practically did the identical factor twice, however the sport headed to additional time, the place the antics continued.
Roughly 80 seconds into additional time, the Golden Knights poked the puck away from Macklin Celebrini and it slid in the direction of the Vegas offensive zone. Nedeljkovic hustled out to clear it away, however his try deflected off Smith and proper to Shea Theodore, who arrange Smith for what was basically an empty-net game-winner.
The Golden Knights are actually 1-0-1 whereas the Sharks are 0-0-1. Each groups play once more on Saturday (Oct. 11): Vegas on the highway towards the Seattle Kraken, San Jose at house towards the Anaheim Geese.
