EDMONTON — Starting their backup goalie against his old club turned out to be a pretty good move for the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.
Goalie Laurent Brossoit made 28 saves for his third career shutout as the Golden Knights won their third straight, blanking the Edmonton Oilers 4-0.
“I definitely was juiced up to play this one. I don’t think I’ve won against Edmonton since moving on from them so it felt nice to win, and to get the shutout, it meant even more,” Brossoit said. “I feel like in the second half of the game the guys shut it down and frustrated them.”
William Karlsson and Reilly Smith each had a goal and an assist and Brett Howden and Alex Pietrangelo also scored for the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights, who improved to 28-16-3.
“I thought they were real good the first 10 minutes, I thought we kind of worked our way into the game,” Knights had coach Pete DeBoer said. “Our best player early was our goalie and I thought once we got our legs going and got up to speed, I liked a lot of things about the rest of the night.”
The Oilers (23-17-3) have lost two of their last three.
“We made the bigger mistakes and they capitalized on those mistakes,” said Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “We were pushing early and even in the second period and couldn’t find a way to beat Brossoit there. It is frustrating to come back from a break and start off like that, but at the same time we play tomorrow and there is no time to dwell on it.
As happens far more often than not, Edmonton allowed the game’s first goal. Midway through the first, Shea Theodore sprang Howden with a long pass and he beat Oilers goalie Mike Smith, who was making his first start since missing the last eight games with a thumb injury.
It was the 28th time in the last 34 games that the Oilers have allowed the first goal of the contest.
The Golden Knights added to their lead with 3:05 left to play in the opening period as Karlsson converted on a pass from Smith on a two-on-none shorthanded breakaway.
Vegas kept coming to make it 3-0 just three minutes into the second period as Pietrangelo scored his seventh of the season — his 500th career point.
It only took 14 seconds into the third period for the Golden Knights to add to their cushion as Smith snuck in a rebound for his 13th.
Both teams are right back at it on Wednesday, as the Oilers will play host to the Chicago Blackhawks and the Golden Knights will travel to Calgary to face the Flames before taking a week off.
Notes: It was the third of four meetings this season between the Pacific Division rivals. The Oilers won both of the previous games in Las Vegas, by 5-3 and 3-2 scores… Massive trade addition Jack Eichel is now participating in full practices for Vegas and could make his debut for the team as early as next week… Out of the Oilers lineup were Kris Russell (undisclosed) and Mikko Koskinen (COVID)… Missing for the Knights were Eichel (neck), Alec Martinez (facial laceration), Adam Brooks (undisclosed) and Zach Whitecloud (undisclosed).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 8, 2022.
Shane Jones, The Canadian Press
