Trailing late, Vegas erased a third-period deficit and survived a high-scoring thriller to sink the Avalanche rookies in a gritty shootout victory.
The Vegas Golden Knights' rookies showed exactly the kind of fight this organization is built on, clawing back from a two-goal, third-period deficit to steal a 6-5 shootout win over the Colorado Avalanche rookies at Tech CU Arena.
It was the perfect response after Saturday's 3-0 shutout loss to the Utah Mammoth. This group could have folded. Instead, they delivered one of the more entertaining comeback efforts of the tournament.
First Period: Digging an Early Hole
Colorado jumped ahead early when Noah Jettelson found a lane through traffic to open the scoring. The Avalanche got a power play when Kalder Varga was called for slashing, but Vegas forward Mathieu Cataford made sure it didn't stay clean — dropping a hard, legal hit on Gustav Stjernberg and drawing a roughing call that evened things up to 4-on-4.
Colorado tacked on a second late in the period when Jake Chiasson buried a backhander off an offensive-zone draw, and the rookies found themselves down 2-0 early.
Second Period: Signs of Life
Vegas finally got on the board with its first goal of the entire tournament — and it was a pretty one. Mateo Nobert set up Trent Swick for a clean finish off a 2-on-1 to make it 2-1. Colorado answered right back through Chiasson's second of the night, but the Golden Knights kept pushing.
Jackson Hallum cashed in on a power play, crashing the net hard and jamming home a rebound to cut the deficit to 3-2. The physicality ramped up from there — Cataford and Stjernberg dropped the gloves, with Cataford getting the better of it, and Vegas' Jackson Hallum mixed it up again with Colorado's Rilen Kovacevic after a whistle. This group wasn't backing down from anything.
Colorado still led 3-2 through two, but Vegas had all the momentum.
Third Period: The Comeback
This is where it got fun. Vegas came out flying, with Hallum ringing one off the crossbar early, and the pressure paid off. Down 4-2 after a Colorado power-play goal, the Golden Knights refused to fade.
Swick blasted home his second of the night on the power play to make it 4-3. Then Viliam Kmec ripped a wrist shot top shelf off a faceoff draw to tie the game at four — pure filth. Colorado grabbed the lead right back on a Nikita Prishchepov breakaway, but Vegas answered again almost immediately: Nobert snapped in a power-play goal just seconds after Colorado took a penalty, tying it at 5-5 and forcing overtime.
Four separate ties or lead changes in the third period alone. That's the kind of resilience that gets you excited about this group heading into the year.
Shootout: Cataford Seals It
After a scoreless overtime, it came down to a shootout that needed four rounds to decide. Colorado's Beckett Hamilton scored first, but Alex Weiermair answered with a slick move to keep Vegas in it. Then Mathieu Cataford — who'd already made his presence felt physically all night — stepped up and buried the shootout winner to give the Golden Knights the 6-5 victory.
Trent Swick finished with a three-point night (two goals, one assist), while Cataford, Nobert, Kmec and Weiermair all played key roles in the comeback.
