Golden Knights Gameday: Golden Knights Look To Sweep Ducks

The Vegas Golden Knights have a chance to sweep the Anaheim Ducks tonight in their current two-game series. Faceoff is slated for 7 pm at T-Mobile Arena, where Vegas is 7-0-1 this season.

Vegas Golden Knights (8-1-1) vs. Anaheim Ducks (5-6-3)

Storylines:

• Alex Pietrangelo returns from the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols for tonight’s game.
• Shea Theodore is out after sustaining an injury in Tuesday night’s game.
• Tomas Nosek was pulled prior to the third period of Tuesday’s game and has landed on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list.

Tuesday’s game between the two clubs seemed like two different games. The Golden Knights built a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes and looked to be in total control of the game heading into the second intermission. But in the third, the Ducks came back with three goals in the first half of the frame to knot things up at four.

From there things tightened up, with Vegas scoring the go-ahead goal off the stick of Zach Whitecloud with 3:56 remaining in regulation time.

Marc-Andre Fleury improved to a perfect 5-0 with the win, stopping 19 shots. Ryan Miller took the loss on 26 saves.

Tonight’s game was in question after Tomas Nosek and Shea Theodore did not finish the contest on Tuesday. Nosek has subsequently landed on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list and will not dress. It turns out Theodore was injured in a first period collision against the Ducks. His injury is undisclosed and he has been listed as day-to-day.

Meanwhile Alex Pietrangelo will return tonight after missing three games. Pietrangelo hasn’t played a game since January 26 against the St. Louis Blues. He was cleared to return in time for Tuesday’s game but the thought was to give him a few days to get back up to speed and mark his return for tonight.

Keep An Eye On:

Vegas Golden Knights

Jonathan Marchessault has quietly put together a great start to the season but seems to be overshadowed by a different teammate every night. Mark Stone has certainly had an impressive start, and Max Pacioretty has put together bigger games. But Marchessault started the season on a four-game point streak, and now is riding a three-game (2-2-4) streak again. It’s hard to imagine with the start Marchessault and his linemates Reilly Smith and William Karlsson that they haven’t garnered as much notice, but they’re definitely making waves for the Golden Knights.

Anaheim Ducks

Troy Terry has posted two multi-point games in his last three outings for the Ducks. The 2015 5th round draft choice hasn’t seen the scoring success blossom in the NHL to match his AHL success just yet, but may be showing signs of a breakout season. With the Ducks struggling to find scoring across the lineup and ranking 27th in goals-for with 29, Terry’s success is an important point of development.

Notes:

Vegas Golden Knights

• Zach Whitecloud has goals in back-to-back games, including the game winner Tuesday.
• Cody Glass has points in his last four games (2-3-5) including a pair of assists in Tuesday’s win over Anaheim.
• Chandler Stephenson has three goals in his last two games.
• Mark Stone has a four-game assist streak, and 5-14-19 in 17 games against Anaheim.

Anaheim Ducks

• Kevin Shattenkirk has three assists in his last two games.
• Hampus Lindholm has assists in three straight games.
• Anaheim has only allowed one road power play goal against this season, fewest in the NHL.
• Ryan Getzlaf’s goal on Tuesday was just his first of the season.
• Isac Lundestrom has scored in his last two games.