In Edmonton, Jonathan Marchessault scored just past the midway point of the first period on Sunday night to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 1-0 lead over the Vancouver Canucks.
That was pretty much all the offense they would need.
Robin Lehner made 26 saves in a 5-0 Game 1 win for Vegas.
“It was really nice to get the win,” Lehner said. “I thought we played a [heck] of game … a really good team game. Everyone was working hard, blocking shots and backchecking. Doing all the small things, and it was nice to come out strong and start the series strong.”
Reilly Smith, Alex Tuch and Mark Stone had two point nights with a goal and assist each.
“These series can be long, but the feeling in the first game is important and doing it the way we did tonight shows what we have in our locker room when we have every guy coming in, stepping up, and having an impact like they had,” Smith said. “We’re a hard team to beat when we’re able to control the puck in the offensive zone, and we did that tonight.”
All three scored in the middle frame to extend the lead to 4-0.
“We wanted to jump on them right from the get-go and get our forecheck going,” Tuch said. “I thought we were quick to strike in the defensive zone and thought our defense didn’t give anyone time and space. But we did take advantage with our physical play.”
Max Pacioretty added a goal midway through the third period to make it 5-0.
“That’s our game (in the second period) and something we’ve been building on prior to the NHL pause (on March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus),” Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said. “We want to come out in those second periods and take advantage of the long changes and beat teams with our depth. We’re tough to play against when we’re playing like that.”
[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Golden Knights 1 highlights]
Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves in the loss and surrendered all five goals.
“I just don’t think we were good enough tonight,” the Canucks’ Alexander Edler said. “They have a very good team, but so do we. We didn’t get up to our standard today. It’s Game 1, and we have to look forward to Game 2 and be better.
“They’re quick, but I think tonight we weren’t at our best and we have to be a little bit better all over the ice.”
Thatcher Demko entered the game with less than two minutes gone in the third period; he made five saves in relief.
“They’re a fast team, they’re a good team,” Vancouver’s head coach Travis Green said. “We just need to play better; we didn’t play very well tonight. We’re definitely not going to just flush it and move on. We’ll watch the game again, we’ll meet with our team like we have whether we’ve played well or didn’t, analyze our game. We have to be better with the puck, that’d be a start, and we have to play better.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.