Tuesday night we saw the Vegas Golden Knights and Calgary Flames face off at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
It was the first of four games between these two Pacific Division opponents this season, with the second played later this week on Saturday.
Summary of the game
The Golden Knights and Flames traded chances throughout the first few minutes of the game. However, it would be the Flames who opened the scoring just over seven minutes into the game on a successful blue line pinch from Mackenzie Weegar. After getting the puck back, Weegar crossed the blue line and found captain Mikael Backlund in the left circle, who fired a shot past Adin Hill for his first goal of the season.
The Flames kept the pressure on after the first goal. Just under five minutes later, they forced a turnover in the defensive zone behind the Golden Knights’ net. The puck flew to Blake Coleman in the slot, and he ripped it over Hill’s other shoulder to take an early two-goal lead.
This is where the score stood after the first frame. To start the second period, the Golden Knights made a change at the crease. Akira Schmid came in to take over for Hill, who left the game with a lower-body injury after an awkward fall on a shot that went off his mask (via Jesse Granger).
The Golden Knights broke the ice exactly halfway through the game. After a Flames offensive zone turnover, Mark Stone recovered the loose puck. He found a streaking Eichel who took a shot off the rush. Dustin Wolf made the first save for the Flames. However, Eichel followed his shot and tapped the puck in, as Wolf could not capitalize on the first chance.
This was the only goal of the second period. To start the third period, the Golden Knights came pushing to attack. Wolf did everything he could to maintain the lead, making several saves on Class A chances before the Golden Knights finally tied the game on a goal from Kaeden Korczak, who found a loose puck in the slot.
The Golden Knights then took the lead just over two minutes later on Jack Eichel’s second goal of the game, after he blew through Flames defenseman Daniil Miromanov and took the puck to the net and rammed it past Wolf for the 3-2 lead with less than 15 minutes to play.
After scoring three unanswered goals, the Golden Knights eliminated the Flames and then closed out the 4–2 win, with Tomáš Hertl adding an empty net goal in the final seconds of the match.
These two meet again on Saturday in Sin City for the second match of the season series.
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