Despite the loss, Logan Thompson was the name heard around all night as he made his first career NHL start against the Predators, he racked up 26 saves during the game.
“[Logan Thompson] was great,” head coach Pete Deboer said. “You know, for really your first start like that in the middle of the season. I thought he came in and gave us a chance to win in a game we probably didn’t deserve to.”
The Knights, coming off a loss two days prior, began the matchup aggressively, as Jonathan Marchessault broke away with a steal in the opening minutes.
Cruising down the ice with no defenders, the puck is passed to Reilly Smith, and back to Marchessault, who takes the shot, the puck ultimately hits the top of the crossbar and goes back into play.
With Smith and Marchessault repeating the sequence on the next play, Nashville takes over. The Predators answered back with a shot of their own but to Vegas’ luck, the puck bounces off the sidebar and out onto the ice.
William Karlsson received the first penalty of the game for tripping, granting the Predators the first power play of the match-up. The Predators were unable to score on the power play, as Thompson racked up two saves.
Tensions became high as Knights’ Keegan Kolesar and Predators’ Tanner Jeannot got into a fight, leaving each team short through the rest of the first period. Both teams went scoreless with the Predators leading 10-8 on shots on goal.
Going into this game, the Predators were averaging 3.0 goals per game, led by Filip Forsberg with 15. He added another to his name minutes into the second period to put the Predators on the board 1-0 over the Golden Knights.
Just minutes later, Yakov Trenin increased Nashville’s lead after deflecting a shot at the net, putting the Predators up 2-0. Later on, Vegas was granted its first power play of the game after Predators’ Roman Josi was called for slashing.
Vegas shot 14 times on the goal with no luck through the second period compared to the Predators’ 11 shots. Seven minutes into the final period, Forsberg sped down the ice and scored his second goal of the night, extending Nashville's lead to 3-0.
William Karlsson was able to put the Knights on the board late in the final period to avoid what would have been the third shutout of the season suffered by Vegas. With under two minutes left, Shea Theodore added another goal for Vegas with an assist by Alex Pietrangelo.
The goal by Karlsson marked his 100th career goal as a Golden Knight, although Vegas was unable to secure the win, William talked about his milestone, “it was great, its something I’ve been wanting for a while now.”
While Vegas rallied an attempted comeback in the final minutes, it wasn't enough as the Predators walked away with a 3-2 victory.
Up Next
The Knights will remain at home to host the New York Rangers in their fourth game of a six-game homestand.
The last time these teams matched up was on Dec. 17 of last year where Jonathan Marchessault scored in the third round of the shootout to lift the Knights past the Rangers 3-2.
Catch the game on the AT&T Sportsnet, puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
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