Golden Knights win West showdown
Vegas blanks Colorado; first Avs game in 11 days
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Max Pacioretty scored early in the second period, MarcAndre Fleury made 30 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Colorado Avalanche 1-0 on Sunday.
Vegas, which improved to 5-1-0 since returning from a pause due to COVID-19 protocols, leapfrogged the St. Louis Blues to reclaim first place in the West Division. The Golden Knights are one point ahead of St. Louis with 21.
Vegas was playing on the second of back-to-back days after a 3-1 win at San Jose on Saturday.
Colorado played for the first time in nearly two weeks after its schedule was paused due to coronavirus protocols.
Fleury, who has allowed two or fewer goals in seven of his eight starts this season, improved to 12-5-2 lifetime against the Avalanche.
Colorado netminder Philipp Grubauer, who had played nine of Colorado’s first 11 games, didn’t appear to be affected by the team’s pause. He was sharp in making 23 saves.
His only glitch came early in the second period, when Zach Whitecloud sent a long pass to Pacioretty, who gathered the puck, raced to the top of the right circle and fired a wrist shot to Grubauer’s short side, just under his glove.
It was all Vegas would need. Fleury completed his second shutout of the season and the 63rd of his career, moving him within one of Henrik Lundqvist for 16th on the career list.
Colorado’s shutdown began after playing Minnesota on Feb. 3 when five Wild players went onto the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. Avalanche forward Tyson Jost, who played three games against the Wild, went on the list Feb. 3, captain Gabriel Landeskog was added the following day, and defenseman Samuel Girard joined the list Feb. 7. Colorado missed five games during its COVID-19 stoppage.
The Golden Knights, who were paused earlier this season, were forced to deal with a second COVID-19 situation Tuesday, when forward Tomas Nosek was pulled from the middle of a game against Anaheim when the team learned he tested positive.
Vegas didn’t practice Wednesday but did play its second game against the Ducks, as no other Golden Knights were added to the list and haven’t been since.
PENGUINS 6, CAPITALS 3: In Pittsburgh, Tristan Jarry made a series of big stops late and a pair of empty-net goals by Zach Aston-Reese and Sidney Crosby helped the Penguins pull away for a victory over somewhat rusty Washington.
Pittsburgh entered the game having been either tied or trailing going into the third period in each of their first 12 contests. Nursing a one-goal advantage this time around, the Penguins held their ground to stay unbeaten at PPG Paints Arena (5-0), with three of those wins coming against the rival Capitals.
“There was a lot to like,” Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We competed hard.”
Bryan Rust scored twice — including a second-period power-play goal that ended an 0-for-20 stretch with the man advantage — and added an assist.
Brandon Tanev and Jake Guentzel also scored for Pittsburgh, which has won two straight. Jarry made 28 saves and assisted on Aston-Reese’s empty-netter with 1:03 to go that finally put Washington away.
It’s been a bumpy start for Jarry, an All-Star a season ago who has found himself sitting for long stretches thanks to the steady play of backup Casey DeSmith. DeSmith, however, was unavailable due to a non-COVID-19 related illness. Jarry made sure emergency call-up Maxime Legace wasn’t necessary.
“Hopefully Tristan should gain some confidence off of this,” Sullivan said. “He certainly should. It was a solid performance by him.”
Nicklas Backstrom collected his 250th career goal for Washington and Jakub Vrana and Evgeny Kuznetsov also scored, but the Capitals looked a little off while playing for the first time in a week thanks a series of COVID-19-related postponements.
Vitek Vanecek finished with 32 stops but Washington — finally at full strength after three-plus weeks of COVID-19 roster disruptions — remained winless this month (0-4).