Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The Vegas Golden Knights chased a lead from puck drop Friday afternoon.
Three minutes into their game against the Ottawa Senators, Adam Gaudette found the back of the net on the controversial goal for an early lead.
The Senators led for 57 minutes of the game or were tied with the Golden Knights. However, Vegas re-wrote its fate in the game’s final three minutes.
A minute apart, goals from Tomáš Hertl and Keegan Kolesar gave the Golden Knights their first lead. Before Ottawa could catch its breath, Ivan Barbashev shot the puck into the empty net to complete the comeback for a 6-4 win.
It’s just the second time in franchise history that the Golden Knights have trailed in the final five minutes of a game and come back to win. The last time that happened was in Vegas’ first season on Jan. 30, 2018, when it trailed the Calgary Flames 2-1 and came back to win 4-2.
“You’re going to win games through 82 games where you’re not at your best, and we weren’t,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We were awful at times, but at the end of the day, you got to get your game going sooner or later, and it started to come.”
The Golden Knights’ backs were against the wall all game. Their opponent shot the puck 35+ times for a third straight game, and Vegas gave it away 20 times.
Kolesar took a delay-of-game penalty in the second period, which Ottawa’s power play converted to take its third lead. However, Kolesar had his moment of redemption later on.
As a fourth-line staple, goals aren’t the most significant focus for Kolesar when he’s on the ice, but he took advantage of the moment when he got the puck.
“You can tell by my celly (celebration) I was kind of shocked myself,” Kolesar said on his goal. “It was a good feeling to bounce back and to play a part in that is special. It shows that anyone on this team can be a factor.”
Spreading that depth has been a critical focus for the Golden Knights. Earlier in the season, the lineups became very top-heavy, as the first line was producing at a rapid rate while the bottom nine players struggled to get going.
While the first line is still one of the top-performing combinations in the NHL, the rest of the offense has started to meet that pace. One player who had a breakout performance on Friday was Tanner Pearson, who had two assists.
“We’re still finding the ideal spot for him (Pearson) as long as he stays with it and plays,” Cassidy said. “He could play with Nic Roy. Karly (William Karlsson) is close, so we could put him on left wing and see how that works… We know he can play in the league and make some plays and he just has to stick with it.”
Resiliency is a keyword for the Golden Knights, and Friday was a prime example of that effort. Tonight, they welcome the San Jose Sharks, who have yet to win a game this season.
Similar to Vegas’ resilient mentality, it’s not counting anyone out. After going down 4-3, the Golden Knights had a 25.2% chance to win. They know that whomever their opponent is any given night, no victory is given.
“You can’t count out anyone in this league. That’s disrespectful to teams in this league,” Kolesar said. “It’s the NHL for a reason. Good players are playing in this league no matter what team you’re on.”
“We want to build off the game’s last 10-15 minutes. We have to watch the start and correct the bad but build off the good at the end.”