Highlights & Analysis: Golden Knights Smother Canucks; Saad Shines, Hill Stands Tall

In recent games, the Vegas Golden Knights (34-17-6) have won because of their defense, not their goaltending. Saturday, it was finally a mix of both. Brandon Saad scored just 18 seconds into the third period, and the Golden Knights weathered a third-period barrage to beat the Vancouver Canucks (26-19-11), 3-1.

The game was likely to be sloppy and high-scoring. Look around the league– there were 12 games, and just three ended with less than five goals. One of them, of course, the Golden Knights win.

The game was riddled with missed passes and fumbled pucks. It looked like a tilt between two teams that had been off for the better part of two weeks. But in the end, the sloppiness wasn’t the story of the game; instead, it was the spectacular goaltending.

Newly signed to a five-year deal, Cancuks goalie Kevin Lankinen was the story of the first 40 minutes; in the last 20, it was all the Golden Knights’ Adin Hill. 

Lankinen looked unbeatable. He stopped everything he saw as well as everything he didn’t see. And he certainly seemed to have it out for a few players. Brett Howden, Victor Olofsson, and Pavel Dorofeyev all had five shots on goal; Lankinen stopped them all. 

Hill faced 33 shots– 19 in the third period alone– and saved all but one. He ended the game with 1.89 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. Down a goal, the Canucks pushed hard in the third period. But Adin Hill was up for the task.

The Canucks opened the scoring at 6:22 in the second period. Carson Soucy intercepted a clearing attempt and backhanded the puck back in deep. Kiefer Sherwood got to it behind the net and sent it cross-crease to Jake DeBrusk. Adin Hill tried an ill-advised poke check, didn’t get all of it, and couldn’t recover in time.

Five minutes later, the Golden Knights finally solved Kevin Lankinen. He won’t get a point, but Jack Eichel was instrumental in making this goal happen. Victor Olofsson rimmed the puck all the way around. Eichel got to it first and took a hit to make a play. He fed Kaedan Korczak cross-ice, and Korczak fired a wrister towards the net that Olofsson tipped. Lankinen made the save, and Ivan Barbashev batted it out of the air to tie the game.

The Golden Knights took the lead 18 seconds into the third period. Noah Hanifin sent a bank pass to Brandon Saad. Saad held the puck, waited, spun away from Conor Garland’s check, and passed to Brett Howden, who came with speed up the middle. Howden entered the zone and passed to Zach Whitecloud, the trailer. Whitecloud fired a wrister that missed the net, but the puck bounced off the back wall right to Saad, who had an open cage to shoot into.

Brett Howden’s shot at the empty net went wide, but ​​Tomáš Hertl hustled to beat out what would’ve been an icing and scored the dagger.

Game Notes

The Golden Knights have won three in a row for the first time since early January. It certainly seems like they’ve gotten back on track. 

Ivan Barbashev’s equalizer snapped a 17-game goalless drought. The last time he scored was before Christmas– December 14th against the Oilers. Of course, he had a few goals overturned. But this one counted, and the monkey is finally off his back.

Brandon Saad scored his go-ahead goal 18 seconds into the third period. This was the Golden Knights’ fastest goal to start a period this season.

Saad isn’t on either power play unit. Right now, Raphaël Lavoie is on the second unit. 

“Our first unit takes up a good chunk of the power play. [Saad] could be on the second; he fell into that in Boston… We’re looking at Lavoie on the power play. That’s something he brought in his resume from the American League, so we want to see if that translates here.”

Here’s something that won’t appear on the stat sheet: Brett Howden had a breakaway in the third period. At the other end of the ice, Brayden McNabb lost a skate blade, and Adin Hill left his net to shove McNabb toward the bench.

I’m not particularly sure what happened to Elias Pettersson, the forward. The Canucks had a power play, down a goal, with less than five minutes left in the third period. Rick Tocchet sent out Jake DeBrusk, Filip Chytil, Brock Boeser, Conor Garland, and Filip Hronek. Pettersson only stepped on the ice when the Canucks pulled Kevin Lankinen for the extra attacker.

The Edmonton Oilers lost tonight. They still have a game in hand, but for now, the Golden Knights are back on top of the Pacific Division. 

Three stars of the game: Brandon Saad, Adin Hill, Ivan Barbashev