Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Golden Knights beat Chicago Blackhawks again, 4-3 in overtime
Defenseman’s rare goal finishes off Blackhawks
CHICAGO — Shea Theodore went a month and a half without a goal before Saturday. Technically, he still hasn’t put the puck in the net since the last time he was at United Center on Nov. 27.
But the Golden Knights defenseman isn’t going to complain.
“I think it’s good to get a bounce like that,” he said.
Theodore was credited with the winning goal 1:19 into overtime to cap a late rally and give the Knights a gutsy 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Paul Stastny tied the game 3-3 with 4:04 remaining in regulation after Pierre-Edouard Bellemare had the apparent tying goal waved off a little less than three minutes earlier.
“It feels good because we battled back,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “For a lot of that third period, Chicago was playing real well. They hemmed us in a little bit and didn’t give us many good chances. … We found a way to get that big win.”
The Knights improved to 6-0 lifetime against Chicago and rebounded from a 3-2 loss to San Jose on Thursday that snapped their seven-game win streak.
Trailing 3-2 entering the third period, the Knights made a strong push in the final 10 minutes and appeared to tie the game when Bellemare knocked in Tomas Nosek’s pass with 6:58 remaining.
But the NHL Situation Room reviewed the goal and “determined that PierreEdouard Bellemare kicked the puck into the net,” which incensed Gallant and the players on the Knights’ bench.
“How that gets taken back blows my mind,” Stastny said. “He’s not kicking it. He’s stopping, making a reaction play.
“That’s karma. They’re going to take that away, that line deserved that goal. I think we were disappointed a little bit, but we just kept going and got what we deserved.”
Stastny notched his sixth goal when he banged a rebound past Blackhawks goaltender Collin Delia after Max Pacioretty’s close-range shot went off the crossbar.
Theodore registered the winner when he received a pass from Brandon Pirri in the neutral zone and drove around Chicago defenseman Carl Dahlstrom.
Dahlstrom knocked the puck off Theodore’s stick, but it slipped through Delia’s legs for Theodore’s fifth goal. He had three goals and five points in the three games against the Blackhawks.
“After losing our streak, coming back on the road, we wanted to get back to it,” Theodore said. “When that goal was disallowed, I think that was a big moment us not giving up. A lot of times, you’re automatically thinking it’s a tie game, but we had to keep working and I thought that was some good adversity for us.”
Alex Tuch added a goal and an assist to tie for the team lead with 15 goals and extend his points streak to a franchise-record nine games. Max Pacioretty contributed two assists as he returned to the second line with Stastny and Tuch.
Ryan Carpenter scored
Tough luck. The city of Chicago is still reeling from the Bears’ postseason loss when kicker Cody Parkey’s field-goal attempt hit the upright. Oscar Lindberg can relate. The Knights forward hit the crossbar two times less than 20 seconds apart near the end of the first period.
Kane dazzles. Kane delivered an impressive performance for the Blackhawks and was arguably the best skater on the ice for either team. He finished with two points in 21:19 of ice time, including a perfectly placed cross-ice pass for Alex DeBrincat’s second goal.
David Schoen Review-Journal
with 53.3 seconds remaining in the second period to cut Chicago’s lead to 3-2 and give the Knights momentum heading into the third.
“It was huge goal to get us back in the hockey game,” Gallant said. “Carpy’s playing great hockey and it was a
plenty of emails supporting that stance.
Fans should care
But if you’re a fan of the Knights, among those who purchase tickets and merchandise and faithfully attend practices, know this: The less transparent McPhee and those who work under him are with us, the less truth you learn about the team you so staunchly support, financially and otherwise. And you deserve that truth.
I’m not foolish enough to believe that McPhee and his executive staff respect Las Vegas media as overly hockey knowledgeable or savvy. Trust me. They don’t. Not anyone. That’s fine, too.
But what happened with the Pirri transaction nonsense and then something like Sharks superstar Erik Karlsson dismissing the media and refusing to answer questions after San Jose’s win Thursday at T-Mobile Arena is exactly why the NHL will always remain the fourth most popular sport in this country.
LeBron James might hate talking some nights, but you know what? He talks. So does Tom Brady.
The NHL lacks transparency in these matters and really doesn’t care, a byproduct of a commissioner in Gary Bettman who mostly comes off as arrogant as he does aloof. And with the Knights, it often puts coach Gerard Gallant in a terrible position of having to publicly support and deliver such obscure messages.
Who knows what happened Thursday great shot, a great goal, and it got us a chance to win the game, for sure.”
Alex DeBrincat scored twice for the Blackhawks, including a power-play goal at 7:22 of the second period when Jon Merrill was given a double-minor for high-sticking.
Patrick Kane also had a power-play goal in the first period, as Chicago went 2-for-4 with the man-advantage.
“I think just getting that point is so important,” Stastny said. “I think that’s what good, winning teams do is they don’t quit on anything.” with Pirri. Maybe a trade fell through. Maybe, as reported by the hockey website SinBin.vegas, the Knights were hoping to use a league rule involving an “emergency recall,” so as not to affect that 10-game limit in regard to exposing the player on waivers. Maybe the league blocked such an attempt.
Maybe it was something entirely different.
Maybe the fax machine was hijacked by Chance.
Pirri isn’t the issue. Those transactions aren’t the issue, nor is how McPhee answered a question about them.
(Well, that last part is actually a big one.)
Mostly, all of it is. Every last denial. You can say it’s part of the culture in sports, specifically those on the professional side, more so in hockey than others. That’s always a popular excuse.
But there’s a disconnect between the Knights and those who cover them when it comes to this stuff, and it all begins at the top of the team’s executive chain.
You might not care.
But if you’re a fan who supports the team financially and otherwise, you should.