On the Strip, Kevin Fiala finished a hat trick less than a minute after the Golden Knights scored to ruin a perfectly good shutout bid from the Los Angeles Kings’ Pheonix Copley, who made 19 saves in 5-1 win on Saturday.
Jonathan Marchessault scored for the Golden Knights with less than three minutes left in the game.
“We were prepared to play the right way. Vegas presents a lot of different challenges,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “We played the way we wanted to and the game plan we wanted to. That was player one through 20. Definitely a good team win.”
Vegas dropped to 27-13-2.
“It was probably the most disappointing game of the year for us when I look at our competitiveness from top to bottom,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Obviously, I’ll look at myself to see what I do to prepare the players. I thought our first little bit was good, but once we got behind, I don’t think we had the bite in us to get back in the game. The will. The compete. Whatever adjective you want to use. And you should.”
FIala and Matt Roy staked the Kings to a 2-0 lead, that held!
“I kind of turned. I wanted to give it to a defenseman, but I saw nobody come at me, and looking at the goal, there was a lot of traffic there. So I just threw it on net and see what happens,” Fiala said. “I had a good lane. It was open. I was hoping nobody would get there.”
It was a rare 2-0 lead held in the NHL.
“That’s big. [Roy] works hard, and to see him get rewarded, that’s awesome,” Copley said. “They’re tough to score on on the power play, so when the PK comes through like that, it’s obviously big.”
At 16:26 of the middle frame, FIala pushed the lead to 3-0.
“The whole game we didn’t give them a lot, especially the second period,” Fiala said. “We had the puck way more and shut them down. We didn’t give them too many opportunities.”
Viktor Arvidsson scored in the third period to make it 4-0 to LA.
Fiala’s third was into an empty net.
“A win’s a win,” Copley said. “We’re happy with that. The guys are blocking shots. The pairs were good again tonight. We got her done.”
Logan Thompson got the start for ,Vegas and surrendered three goals, and made 16 saves before getting the hook after the second intermission.
Adin Hill made two saves in a mop up role.
“There wasn’t much good, but the good was we created three good looks,” Cassidy said. “Maybe it’s a different game if those go in.”
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