On Monday night, Alex Tuch scored with just 42 seconds left in the game to erase a 2-goal 3rd period Minnesota lead at T-Mobile. Last night, he picked up right where he left off, scoring just 2:03 into the game for the lead that Vegas never relinquished in their 5-1 win over the Wild at T-Mobile.
On Monday night, the VGK led in the game for 1:42 as Minnesota scored quickly after Cody Glass’ opening goal. Last night Vegas who lead the entire game from start to finish.

Minnesota came to town with a 6-game winning streak, just 1 point behind Vegas for first place in the Honda West Division. They leave with a 2-game losing streak, have fallen 4 points behind Vegas and into 4th place in the last playoff spot in the division. Vegas has 1 game in hand on Minnesota and has played the least number of games in the entire division with just 19. St. Louis and Anaheim have played 23 games so far. With last night’s win, Vegas now has a 4-game winning streak, which matches the streak they opened the season with in their first 4 games at T-Mobile.

Vegas has won 10 of 13 games played at T-Mobile in a schedule that had them playing 13 of their first 19 games at home. They’ve made the most of it, picking up 21 out of a possible 26 points. A big test awaits them now as they head out on a 6-game road trip and 4 of the 6 games are on back-to-back nights, March 5-6 vs. San Jose and March 12-13 vs. St. Louis. The games in between these 4 are a rematch against Minnesota. With this condensed 6-game road trip and Fleury playing every game since Robin Lehner was injured, expect to see Oscar Dansk in action in at least 2 of these games.

Alex Tuch has 5 goals in his last 5 games and has scored in back-to-back games. He has 9 goals so far this season in 19 games. Last season he had 8 goals in 42 games.

Vegas, who didn’t have a penalty in Monday’s game, took 3 penalties last night. They have one of the best penalty-killing units in the league and haven’t surrendered a power play goal since Feb 9th.
DeBoer continued to shuffle around the forwards he reunited and opened the game with the original 1st line of the 2017-18 season with Karlsson, Marchessault, and Smith. He reunited that line in the 3rd period Monday night in his attempt to ignite the 2-goal comeback.

The 5-1 final is not the true story of this game as that score indicates a walk in the park for the VGK. Minnesota was competitive, especially in the 3rd period, when they had 20 shots on Fleury, the most shots given up by the VGK all season in a period. The score was still 2-1 when Mark Stone scored with just 8:52 left in the game; it was only Vegas’ 3rd shot in the 3rd period at that point. It was also Stone’s first shot and his only shot on goal in the game; Stone continues to impress, following up on Monday’s 5-assist performance with 1 goal and 1 assist last night.

Five different VGK players lit the lamp last night: Tuch, Marchessault, Stone, Stephenson, and Karlsson with an empty-net goal. Stephenson’s goal and assist in last night’s game give him 34 points in 60 games as a VGK. In 168 games as a Washington Capital, he had 33 points in 168 games. Stephenson was acquired from Washington for a 5th round 2021 draft pick. This may be the best trade the VGK has ever made. Some 2nd round draft picks never make the big show, so a 5th round pick is an afterthought 99% of the time.
Fleury was once again a force for the VGK, stopping 36 of the 37 shots he faced and unlike Monday night, where 3 of the 4 goals were scored from the blue paint area, a spot the Fleury with his quick legs usually dominates. Last night, he was back in the zone with some nice reactions with his pads when the puck was in close on him.

The next 2 games vs. San Jose could be a powder keg, as there has always been some bad blood between these 2 teams. But with the shenanigans that went on the last time these 2 teams locked horns, watch for Reaves or possibly Kolesar make Evander “Dead Beat” Kane answer for jumping Reilly Smith late in a game that was so out of reach it was entirely uncalled for. The San Jose Sharks also believe that Jonathan Marchessault took liberties with 2 booming hits that they claim should have been penalized and were not. Get your popcorn ready.

Speaking of popcorn, I said that the official scorer, who registered only 1 giveaway for the VGK on Monday when there were a good number more, had left the arena for some additional popcorn. Last night, he had the VGK with 10 giveaways. Either he didn’t need any popcorn last night or he switched the Monday VGK giveaways to last night’s scorecard.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Alex Tch (1G 1 A, along with playing the entire 200 feet of the ice), Chandler Stephenson (1G 1A), Mark Stone (1G on 1 shot and 1 A)

Next game is tomorrow vs. San Jose Sharks 7:30 p.m.

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Tuch’s opening goal

Stephenson’s sweet backhander

Marchessault’s winning goal