Dylan Coghlan fires first shot in bid to make Golden Knights

IRVINE, Calif. — One of Dylan Coghlan’s biggest assets in his quest to make the Golden Knights’ 23-man roster is his booming shot.

The defenseman put it on full display Saturday in the Anaheim Rookie Faceoff.

Coghlan scored both goals, including a wicked drive in the second period, in the Knights’ 5-2 loss to Colorado at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena.

“I’ve kind of worked on it the last few years, and I think that’s one of the stronger parts of my game,” Coghlan said. “I try to shoot it as much as I can, and hopefully that catches someone’s eye.”

Coghlan skated with Jimmy Schuldt on the blue line and opened the scoring early in the second period. Center Jake Leschyshyn set a screen in front, and Coghlan overpowered Avalanche goaltender Hunter Miska with a slap shot from the right point.

In the third period, Coghlan jumped into the play and tapped in Lucas Elvenes’ feed at the back post to cut Colorado’s lead to 4-2 with 12:15 remaining.

The undrafted Coghlan led Chicago (American Hockey League) defensemen in scoring last season with 15 goals and 40 points. He is part of the competition with Schuldt, Nic Hague, Zach Whitecloud and Jake Bischoff for at least one opening on defense.

“I thought Dylan did a really good job today, and obviously he had another really good opportunity as well with a big slap shot,” said Chicago coach Rocky Thompson, who is leading the rookie team. “Offensively, I thought he did some really good things, there’s no doubt. That’s what you see with D, picking right up where he left off.”

Female referee

Katie Guay was one of the referees for the Knights-Avalanche game and is one of four female officials working NHL prospects tournaments this weekend.

She was selected out of a group of 96 officials who participated in the league’s officials exposure combine last month in Buffalo, New York.

Guay refereed women’s games at the Winter Olympics last year in South Korea and was the first woman to officiate Division I men’s college hockey.

Difficult day

Saturday marked the eight-year anniversary of the plane crash that killed 44 members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team in Russia.

Among those who died was coach Brad McCrimmon, the older brother of Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon.

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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.