Saturday, March 8, 2025 | 2 a.m.
It’s been a long week and a half for Vegas Golden Knights goalie Ilya Samsonov.
In back-to-back starts against the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 24 and the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 27, he went 1-1 but allowed 10 goals over six periods.
It was a similar pace to his performance in December 2023 when he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs when he allowed 22 goals in four games and eventually was placed on waivers.
Samsonov’s frustrations were visible at Tuesday’s practice as he slammed his stick against the goalpost multiple times before throwing it against the boards.
“It’s okay to show a little emotion in practice. There’s nothing wrong with that for that position,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It’s a frustrating position, and it’s a lonely position some days.”
“Just channel it the right way when you do (get frustrated) and bring it to the table when it’s puck drop.”
He needed a big game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday and got it. Samsonov made 22 saves in a 4-0 Golden Knights shutout win over the Penguins, his second of the season.
“I had a couple of bad games and need to take a couple of steps back in order to get some moving forward,” Samsonov said. “We (Samsonov and coach Sean Burke) discussed a lot about my game and what we want to see in this game.”
Samsonov saw his start against the Penguins go up against some of the best players in the game. One of those players was Evgeni Malkin, a fellow countryman who became the fifth Russian-born player to surpass 1,200 career games Friday.
Samsonov stonewalled them all.
“We played excellent defense and had nice discipline,” Samsonov said. “For me, it’s a big opportunity to play against (Sidney) Crosby, (Evgeni) Malkin and (Rickard) Raquel. That’s a pretty good line. It was a nice game for us to get a shutout and two points.”
On the other end of the ice, Vegas got its offense pumping. Tanner Pearson scored his 11th of the year on a behind-the-back pass from Mark Stone to give Vegas an early 1-0 lead.
In the second period, Ivan Barbashev sniped a shot past Alex Nedeljkovic to make it 2-0. Brandon Saad scored on a similar shot in the third period to make it 3-0, and Mark Stone picked up his third point in the game, which was his 17th goal of the season.
The Golden Knights are seeing consistent play from both of its goalies, which is critical heading into the final stretch of games before the postseason starts.
“They’ve both (Adin Hill and Samsonov) been great these last five games, and sometimes we just need a huge save to keep on going,” Barbashev said.
For Samsonov, the Golden Knights don’t know when they’ll need him in April. Last season, Adin Hill got injured, and Logan Thompson had to start in the Golden Knights’ first four Stanley Cup playoff games against Dallas.
Cassidy said that Samsonov needed a good game, not just for himself but for the entire team.
“He needed a game today because the last two didn’t go as well as he would like, and we’re all in agreement of that,” Cassidy said. “There’s going to be ups and downs during the season, and we all get that. We understand that. It’s about how you respond, and he responded well.”