The Vegas Golden Knights will try and put the finishing touches on what so far has been a December to remember when they host the Montreal Canadiens in a New Year’s Eve matinee on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights, who are an NHL best 15-3-0 at home, are 10-1-0 in December and bring a six-game winning streak into the contest, the team’s longest since beginning the 2023-24 campaign with seven consecutive wins.
Vegas entered Monday’s action tied with Winnipeg for the NHL lead in points with 53. Defense and goaltending have spearheaded the success with the Golden Knights allowing two goals or fewer in nine of their 11 December contests, including a pair of shutouts.
Vegas comes in off a 3-0 blanking of the visiting Calgary Flames on Sunday night as backup goalie Ilya Samsonov picked up his first shutout of the season and 14th of his career by stopping 31 shots.
Tanner Pearson had a goal and an assist and Brett Howden and Victor Olofsson also scored goals for the Golden Knights, who improved to an eye-popping 21-3-2 against Western Conference foes.
“Defensively, I think in terms of our structure, I think is excellent,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “In the D-zone we’re not giving up a lot from the slot, we’re better on the second chance and getting the rebounds out of the way. Rush defense was pretty good tonight, too, as it was in San Jose (in a 6-3 win on Friday.). … It’s one of the reasons we’ve had a terrific month.”
“I think we’ve locked down our D-zone,” Pearson added. “Everyone is kind of reading the plays off right. I think everyone’s kind of bought into what we’re trying to do.”
The Golden Knights now begin a stretch that sees them play five of their next six against Eastern Conference teams beginning with Tuesday afternoon’s contest with Montreal.
The Canadiens, in the midst of a six-game road trip, have won five of their last six games to move within five points of Ottawa for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Montreal is coming off a weekend sweep of defending Stanley Cup champion Florida (4-0) on Saturday and Tampa Bay (5-2) on Sunday.
Center Jake Evans has scored a goal in five straight games for the Canadiens while Jakub Dobes had 34 saves to blank the Panthers in his NHL debut. It marks the first time since 2017 that Montreal swept the Florida teams on a trip.
“These are two tough buildings to come in and get wins, I’m really happy with everyone’s effort,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, a former first-round pick of the Golden Knights, said after Sunday’s win over the Lightning. “Both teams are on a back-to-back and the mind is the first thing to go. I thought we played a really smart game, managed the puck well, managed the game fully, so it’s a big two points for us.”
This is the second of two meetings between the two teams. Vegas won the first one, 6-2, on Nov. 23 in Montreal thanks to a second period that saw the Golden Knights score five straight goals.
–Field Level Media
