The Vegas Golden Knights snapped a two-game losing streak with a 4-0 shutout vs. the San Jose Sharks on Monday.
Mason Morelli finished with two points in his NHL debut, Logan Thompson recorded his first shutout of the season, and the Golden Knights completed their season sweep of the Sharks.
It was a dominant performance for a Vegas team that woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
San Jose controlled the possession for the first two minutes and had two opportunities to take an early lead, but Vegas caught two breaks when forward Luke Kunin and defenseman Calen Addison hit the left post within a minute of each other.
Those two ‘dings’ were the closest San Jose got to scoring on Monday.
“We had a tough first shift or a couple,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “We got lucky. They hit a couple of posts. Logan made some good saves. It could have given them a lot of life. I think we can still play through that stuff.”
???? Head Coach Bruce Cassidy after Monday's 4-0 win in San Jose pic.twitter.com/BVAMKinp9V
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 20, 2024
Meanwhile, the Knights were only just hitting their stride.
One minute after that second ‘DING’ rang throughout the SAP Center, Zach Whitecloud found Michael Amadio with a beautiful stretch pass — giving the VGK forward a breakaway opportunity.
He buried it for his eighth goal and 19th point of the season. It’s his second goal in the past three games.
Saving this in our "WHAT A PASS!!!!!" folder ???? pic.twitter.com/TLROHiwePL
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 19, 2024
“The fact that we get a quick-hitter breakaway goal probably demoralized them for a few minutes and it was long enough for us to get to our game and stay there,” Cassidy added.
Golden Knights Stayed Aggressive
Vegas could’ve stopped there and Thompson’s 29-save shutout would’ve been enough, but they kept going.
William Karlsson netted his 17th of the season two minutes later, and Morelli capitalized on his first-ever power-play opportunity. They had 19 seconds left with the man advantage and just 48 seconds left in the first period. Vegas was up 3-0.
Kolesar rounded out the win with his fifth goal of the season late in the second period, while Alec Martinez assisted on each of the final three goals for Vegas — his three assists led the team and tied a career-high.
Thompson earned his fourth career shutout and first shutout since Oct. 28, 2022. He improves to 17-10-4 on the year with a 2.68 GAA and .909 SV%.
IT'S A 29-SAVE SHUTOUT FROM LOGAN THOMPSON!!!!!!#VegasBorn | @A1GarageDoors pic.twitter.com/muV4FNf2sD
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 20, 2024
Meanwhile, San Jose gave up their ninth shutout of the season — tying a franchise record. Two of those shutouts have come against Vegas — who outscored the Sharks 18-5 in their four-game regular season series.
What was once a fiery rivalry — heightened by two intense playoff series in 2017 and 2018 — has since cooled off. The Knights are 19-1-3 vs. the Sharks since the start of the 2019-20 season, and are showing no signs of slowing down.
Swept and shut out the Sharks ???? pic.twitter.com/8EG36Pa6hB
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 20, 2024
The Knights are now 32-17-6 (70 points) on the season, but the Sharks fall to 15-35-5 (35 points).
What’s Next?
The Golden Knights travel back to Las Vegas for the second half of a back-to-back on Tuesday night.
Vegas hosts the Nashville Predators at T-Mobile Arena at 7 pm local time.
As for the Sharks, they, too, will play the Predators in their next matchup, but have a few days off first.
San Jose hosts Nashville at SAP Arena on Saturday (Feb. 24) at 7 pm local time.
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