Golden Knights Smith, Karlsson continue shorthanded wizardry

The phrase “man advantage” becomes a misnomer when William Karlsson and Reilly Smith are on the penalty kill.

The two Golden Knights forwards are shorthanded terrors, always a deflection or a pokecheck away from an odd-man rush. They pounce on any opportunity an overly aggressive power play gives them.

That continued Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks. Smith forced a turnover in the defensive zone, rushed down the ice and patiently waited for Karlsson to get open for a tap-in goal.

“Just trying to get us back to even,” Smith said. “I definitely owe him for a lot of backdoor tap-ins that he’s given me over the last few years.”

The goal continued the duo’s staggering work on the penalty kill this season. Karlsson has five shorthanded points (two goals, three assists), while Smith has four (two goals, two assists).

Only six NHL teams have outscored the pair’s four combined goals on the penalty kill. Karlsson has been on the ice for more shorthanded goals (five) than power-play goals against (four).

”We have the mindset of trying to attack when we can,” Karlsson said. “There are some spaces that open up, especially when teams have only one guy on the blue line. It’s been working pretty well.”

The two are uniquely gifted to take advantage of those openings. Karlsson and Smith are two of the Knights’ best defensive forwards and keep their sticks active in the defensive zone to hunt for turnovers. They’re also both blazing fast but keep their heads up when skating through the neutral zone.

That allows them to find each other when they’re going full speed to the net. Even when they don’t see each other, they’ve played together for three seasons so they usually know where the other one will be anyway.

That’s what leads to shorthanded goals off the rush like Saturday’s, or Smith’s in the season opener against the San Jose Sharks. Smith created a turnover at the blue line with his stick, passed to Karlsson, got the puck back and scored for his first goal of the season.

“It’s fun to watch,” defenseman Deryk Engelland said. “I get to kill with them lots. Any time we can get a puck to the neutral zone, you never know what’s going to happen with those two out there.”

Smith seems to be enjoying their chemistry too, especially since his first two NHL teams, the Dallas Stars and Boston Bruins, barely trusted him on the penalty kill. But then he was traded to the Florida Panthers, who were led at the time by Knights coach Gerard Gallant.

He earned Gallant’s trust on the penalty kill then, and now no coach would think about not putting him on the ice shorthanded. Same goes for Karlsson, and he and Smith have celebrated their combined success by setting each other up for plenty of goals.

“I owe him probably 10 more,” Smith said. “But, you know, don’t tell him that because he’ll start shooting it on 2-on-1s. I enjoy backdoor tap-ins too.”

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Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.