In the Neighborhood: 3 Observations as Golden Knights’ Special Teams Come Up Big in Gutsy Win

Beginning on January 20th, 1974, the Pittsburgh Penguins went through a 42-game stretch without a single win at the Spectrum, the former arena of the Philadelphia Flyers. Finally, on February 2nd, 1989, two Penguins radio broadcasters took the ice after warmups and performed a joke voodoo ritual complete with war chants.

That night, the Penguins won their first game in Philadelphia in 15 years.

When the Vegas Golden Knights took the ice tonight, their stretch of bad luck in Pittsburgh wasn’t dire enough for a witch doctor ritual. As it turned out, they didn’t need one; no bones were involved in their second-ever win at PPG Paints Arena.

“It wasn’t perfect,” said Tomáš Hertl following the 3-2 win. “It was kind of an ugly game. But we got two points, and that’s all that matters.”

The Golden Knights have been in a rough patch as of late. But with their win tonight and their overtime loss yesterday in Boston, they’ve kicked off a four-game road trip with three out of four points.

“The last two nights should galvanize our group,” said head coach Ryan Craig postgame. “There’s a come-from-behind to get a point [last night]; tonight was a grind. But they stayed together. They stayed together, and they found a way to get three out of four points to start a trip. We’ll take that with us to Detroit and build off it.”

“We grinded,” added forward William Karlsson. “There were a lot of special teams in this game, and we came out on top. I’m proud of the boys.”

The Golden Knights have a dangerous power play, and it’s been a real silver lining over the last few games. 

The connection between Mark Stone and Tomáš Hertl is particularly lethal. Tonight, Hertl struck twice on the man advantage. Stone assisted on his second goal of the night, which came with just 35 seconds left to give the Golden Knights a much-needed win.

“Teams know it’s coming, and it’s still hard to defend,” gushed Mitch Marner following the 3-2 win. “It probably helps that they’re both massive men; they take up a lot of the ice. And their connection is really good. Tommy’s so good at reading the play, and Stoney’s so good at making those little two-foot, three-foot plays.”

Mitch Marner, who quarterbacks the top unit, has been making it a priority to shoot more on the power play. That’s how he assisted on Hertl’s first goal of the night, extending his personal point streak to eleven games. 

“I’m trying to get more through, for sure,” said Marner. “I think a lot of teams are trying to take away that connection between Stoney and Hertl. It’s obviously a big piece of our power play. I feel like when we shoot, we break teams down and get them running around. Then you’re able to make those quick two plays, and you get that gap.”

“The power play had a huge goal there at the end of the game,” said Trevor Connelly. “ It was just an incredible pass by Stoney. And Herts is so smart and just kind of found the soft area.”

The Golden Knights went 2-for-4 on the power play tonight, but somehow, the penalty kill was even better. They killed off all six penalties, including a full 1:22 of 5-on-3 towards the end of the third period. 

“Special teams were very good tonight,” said Golden Knights head coach Ryan Craig following the 3-2 win. “[I’m proud of] the timing, and the way we raised our intensity on [the penalty kill]... We’ve gotten some timely saves, and our aggressiveness has been good.”

“We killed the penalties that we took, and then we scored two [power play] goals,” added William Karlsson. “Pretty simple.”

The Golden Knights struggled earlier in the season when down a man, but after two games where the penalty kill has come up big, they look to be turning a new corner. The penalty killers don’t really feel like they’re doing anything different, however.

“We were synchronized,” said Karlsson. “We were reading each other. When we did get beat, we had Hilly in net making huge saves… It didn’t look great at the end, but we killed that off, got a power play, and got it done. It’s just hockey.”

“I think we’ve really liked what we’ve been doing,” said Mitch Marner. “It just seems like we had to make one extra play, one extra clear, and we’re good. When we pressured, we did a good job with it; when we didn’t, I think we did a good job of taking away passing lanes. And Hiller made some big saves again.”

The Penguins tied the game just 1:09 into the third, and pulled ahead halfway through the period. The Golden Knights were on their heels, and it looked like they were headed to yet another ugly loss.

Enter Trevor Connelly.

Jeremy Lauzon broke up Egor Chinakhov’s centering pass, and Connelly corralled the puck and took off towards the Pittsburgh net with a full head of steam. The rookie moved in all alone and beat Artūrs Šilovs with a backhand-forehand move.

“Same as yesterday,” said William Karlsson. “It’s good timing on his goals, on both nights. He gets us back into the game. He uses his speed and puts on a nice move.”

It was a very timely goal for the 20-year-old Connelly, who scored another game-tying goal just 24 hours ago in Boston.

“Big moments,” said head coach Ryan Craig. “That’s what Trevor does. I’ve seen him do it before. He’s starting to make those big plays in those big moments for us. It was obviously a very big goal for us to get tied up, and it kind of reset us.”

“I’m just trying to win,” said Connelly following the 3-2 win. “I’m just trying to put my best foot down every shift, and going out there and giving it my best effort.”