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The Vegas Golden Knights will put an eight-game point streak on the line when they host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
The Golden Knights, who lead the NHL with 43 points, are 5-0-3 over the eight-game span after a 5-4 shootout victory over visiting San Jose on Sunday. Vegas won despite blowing a 4-2 third-period lead with Mike Hoffman tying it for the Sharks with 39 seconds left to force overtime.
Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault both scored in the shootout to give the Golden Knights their third straight win. Marchessault also scored twice for his fourth multi-goal game of the season and clinched the win when he led off the third round of the shootout with a goal.
Vegas goalie Jiri Patera, making his season debut and playing his third NHL game, logged 34 saves and stopped two shootout tries to pick up the win.
It was the second game of a back-to-back for Vegas that began with a 6-1 victory at Dallas in a rematch of last season’s Western Conference final. It also was the 14th game over 27 days for the Golden Knights, with 10 of those contests coming on the road.
“We found a way to get two points,” said Eichel, who extended his point streak to seven games with a third-period assist. “Good resiliency from our group.
“You’ve got to take care of business, obviously. It was not an easy game. We had an emotional win last night against Dallas, traveled home, (and) they’re sitting here waiting for us. They’ve been playing good hockey, very competitive, and at the end of a road trip, they gave us all we could handle. It was just good that we found a way to get two points.”
The Golden Knights, ahead of the second game on a four-game homestand, got a much-needed day off on Monday to recharge for the Tuesday contest against the Flames.
“We’ve been playing a lot of hockey,” Eichel said. “The schedule has been hectic for all of us. Finding a way to get points is important. … It feels like we’ve been on the road for quite a while. Take advantage of a little home cooking and sleeping in your own bed. It’s nice to be home.”
Calgary will be playing the second game of a back-to-back set that started Monday night in the mile-high altitude of Denver. The Flames, leading 5-3 going into the third period, gave up three unanswered goals and dropped a 6-5 decision to Colorado. Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winner on a breakaway with 4:30 remaining for the Central Division-leading Avalanche.
“It’s tough,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “We had a tough stretch in the third period there where we made a mistake with the puck and they got a lot of momentum from that point. We weren’t able to stop the momentum.
“The hard part in a game like this is you score five goals but you can’t give up six. There’s mistakes that we made that we have to correct and fix in our own zone. There’s no doubt about that. Simple plays with the puck caused us a lot of problems in regards to chances-against tonight. We have to clean that up.”
Center Nazem Kadri, a key cog on a Colorado team that won the 2022 Stanley Cup, scored his 250th career goal and also had an assist in the loss.
“We had a lot of great opportunities but we just had some dumb mistakes,” Kadri said. “That’s really what it came down to. Nate (MacKinnon) gets a wide-open breakaway when the game is tied. Obviously not what we wanted, but the good thing is we have a chance for redemption (Tuesday). We’ve got a good Vegas team in a hostile building, so it’s not getting any easier and we better be ready to play.”
The Flames defeated the Golden Knights 2-1 in the teams’ only other meeting this season, in Calgary on Nov. 27. MacKenzie Weegar scored the game-winner with five seconds left in overtime.
–Field Level Media
