Golden Knights beat slumping Senators 6-3
By W.g. Ramirez, The Associated Press on December 17, 2023.
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Logan Thompson came off the bench to make 20 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the slumping Ottawa Senators 6-3 on Sunday night. Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev each had a goal and an assist, while Jonathan Marchessault, Nicolas Roy, Chandler Stephenson and William Karlsson also scored for the Golden Knights. Adin Hill, who allowed one goal, made just two saves in his return to the net for the first time since Nov. 30. He left only 6:25 into the game. Thompson showed signs of a lower-body injury suffered in the third period, as he hunched over between shots, and was slow to get up each time he went down to block a shot. Vegas, which improved to 10-1-0 all-time against the Senators, extended its win streak against Ottawa to nine games. The Golden Knights have outscored the Senators 47-29 and have scored three or more goals in 10 of the 11 meetings. Josh Norris, Ridly Greig and Brady Tkachuk each scored for the Senators and Joonas Korpisalo made 25 saves. The Senators have lost four straight games. After Friday’s disappointing collapse against Buffalo, the defending Stanley Cup champion Knights wasted no time getting on the board, as Barbashev skated in on a 2-on-1 with Eichel, who kept the puck for himself and beat Korpisalo with a snapper 1:37 into the game. Eichel extended his point streak to a franchise-record 10 games. The Senators responded five minutes later when Norris beat Hill on a power play, after which the Golden Knights’ netminder who led them to the Stanley Cup title in June left the game with an apparent injury. Ottawa scored another power-play goal when Greig ripped a shot while Jiri Smejkal was a perfect screen in front of Thompson. Vegas tied it when Marchessault took the puck into the zone on his own and wristed a shot from just inside the blue line. After failing to capitalize on their first two power-play opportunities, Roy took a pass from Ben Hutton, skated alone and went forehand-backhand to beat Korpisalo and give Vegas a one-goal lead in the second period. Moments later, with Roy in the box for holding, Stephenson took a feed from Mark Stone and pushed Vegas’ lead to two goals with a short-handed goal. Barbashev’s goal with 11.1 seconds left in the period made it 5-2. Karlsson scored early in the third when he punched home a rebound to push Vegas’ lead to four goals and Tkachuk’s late goal provided the final margin. UP NEXT Senators: Visit Arizona on Tuesday. Golden Knights: Visit Carolina on Tuesday. — AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl 20-19
