Golden Knights Earn Every Inch Against the Mammoth
Olofsson and Barbashev do the heavy lifting as Vegas stretches its win streak at home against last spring's playoff foe.
Vegas didn't need any luck to beat Utah 5-3. The Golden Knights got the better looks for most of the night, and the final score is a fair reflection of how the game was played.
The shot clock tells the first part: Vegas outshot Utah 28-17. The quality backs it up. By expected goals (how many goals a team's chances were worth), Vegas generated 5.25 to Utah's 3.25, so five goals is almost exactly what its chances earned.
Sebastian Cossa had a long night in the Utah net. He stopped 23 of 28, and his shooters came at him from close range: 10 of those shots were high-danger chances, and he turned aside 7 of them.
Victor Olofsson was the busiest Vegas shooter with six shots and a goal plus two assists. He played with Ivan Barbashev, who buried two, and Tomas Hertl. Mitch Marner set up three and rang one off the iron. Lawson Crouse hit metal for Utah too.
The win runs Vegas to three straight and 12-5-2, second in the Pacific.
