Eichel plays overtime hero again
Vegas needed 39 seconds of overtime to finish off Utah, and it took its captain to make it happen. Jack Eichel scored the winner in a 5-4 victory that pushed the Golden Knights to 3-0 in the preseason, a perfect record that means little in the standings but plenty for a team trying to answer questions about its top-six chemistry before October.
The shot count tells its own story. Vegas out-attempted Utah 35-21 and still needed extra time to close it out, a reminder that preseason score effects and heavy lineup rotation rarely match the underlying play. Mark Stone’s power-play goal and Tomas Hertl’s third-period tally kept the Golden Knights within range after Utah built a lead through Zac Jones, Liam O’Brien, Artem Duda and Tomas Lavoie. Utah countered the shot gap by out-blocking Vegas 21-5 and edging the hit count 19-17, a heavier, shot-blocking approach that kept the score close against a team that controlled far more of the puck.
Try it for $0.99.
Utah’s kids made a night of it
Liam O’Brien scored in his second straight game, a small but notable trend for a player fighting for a bottom-six job. Kevin Stenlund set up three of Utah’s chances with a strong distributing performance, and rookie goaltender Sebastian Cossa drew praise from coach André Tourigny, who called his game “calm” and said Cossa “gave us confidence.” Tourigny was blunt about what comes next, admitting the coaching staff faces “a tough, tough decision” as the roster gets trimmed before opening night.
Vegas got its own look at fringe pieces too. Victor Olofsson and Jeremy Lauzon scored in the early stretches before Utah’s response, and for a Golden Knights group that has now won three straight to open the preseason, the value is not in the record. It is in seeing whether the depth around Eichel, Stone and Hertl can hold up once real minutes are on the line.
What it means going forward
Neither team will remember this scoreline in November. But Cossa’s performance in a losing effort and O’Brien’s back-to-back goals both carry weight in Utah’s final roster calls, while Vegas keeps testing lineup combinations with a cushion of confidence behind them.
Discover the rest of our NHL news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply