The Vegas Golden Knights (14-6-2) capped off a thrilling comeback win versus the Philadelphia Flyers (9-10-3) on Monday, Nov. 25. They won 5-4 after previously trailing by three goals.
Early in the first period, both teams traded blows when the Flyers got on the power play. The multiple odd-man rushes for each side were turned away by the netminders, however. You’d think killing off this penalty would benefit Vegas momentum-wise, but it was Philadelphia that found their legs. Morgan Frost tipped a Rasmus Ristolainen shot past goaltender Ilya Samsonov to make it 1-0 for the Flyers.
Shortly after, captain Sean Couturier joined on the fun to double Philadelphia’s lead. After going nearly a month without a goal, he has struck in back-to-back games.
Related: Flyers’ Sean Couturier Is the Solution, Not the Problem
In the second period, Flyers rookie defenseman Emil Andrae notched his first NHL goal just 28 seconds in. After this, the Golden Knights finally found their groove.
Jack Eichel, who entered this game tied for fourth in league point-scoring, beat Flyers goaltender Ivan Fedotov for his eighth tally of the season. Less than four minutes later, he was on a rush with Ivan Barbashev to try and make it a one-goal game. His initial shot attempt was unsuccessful, but his pass across to Barbashev made it a 3-2 game.
As the Golden Knights were feeling good, rookie Matvei Michkov gave the Flyers some insurance. His eighth goal and 17th point of the season serve as more fuel for his Calder Trophy candidacy—he leads all rookies in both of those statistics. That feeling was short-lived, though, when fellow young Russian Pavel Dorofeyev scored a power-play goal to make it 4-3.
A bit over midway through the third period, the Golden Knights made it a comeback courtesy of a Tanner Pearson goal. Scoring four of the previous five goals, they made it all the way back to a tie. Overtime ensued a little while later.
TANNER. PEARSON. 🍐 pic.twitter.com/sUHeWRsQep
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) November 26, 2024
Overtime favored the Flyers heavily, especially once they got a power play. They outshot the Golden Knights 8-0 in that period, but the penalty-killers held strong to force a shootout.
In that shootout, the Golden Knights had much more luck. Samsonov stopped all three of the shots he faced, while Eichel struck gold for Vegas to seal the victory.
In the end, it wasn’t the most memorable night for either of the Russian goaltenders between the pipes, but Samsonov of the Golden Knights had the better game statistically with 32 saves on 36 shots. Fedotov turned aside 26 of 30 shots for the Flyers.
