Golden Knights rally to beat Devils for 6th straight win
Ryan Reaves slumped in front of his locker, still wearing the bottom half of his equipment, and drifted off deep in thought.
There was a lot to digest.
The Golden Knights winger was the catalyst for Sunday’s come-from-behind 3-2 victory over New Jersey, but his temporary rush of blood to the head late in the third period also made for a tense finish for the announced gathering of 18,103 at T-Mobile Arena.
And that’s where Reaves’ mind kept going to following his team’s sixth consecutive victory.
“I think I blacked out for a second,” Reaves explained. “I’m not exactly sure what happened. But, yeah, two points is the key. I thought it was a good game until the last three minutes.”
Max Pacioretty, whose wife gave birth to their fourth son early Saturday, netted the go-ahead goal with 4:12 left in the second period.
Goaltender Malcolm Subban, making his first start at home, came up with 20 of his 36 saves in the third period.
“I think we’ve got seven games left until our break and we just want to keep getting points because everybody else is winning in our conference, so you’ve got to keep winning and playing hard,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “I like what we are doing. I didn’t like some of the parts of our game tonight, but like I said we played well enough to win.”
Reaves scored his career-high eighth goal (and 14th point) in the opening period, the first of three unanswered goals by the Knights.
But those milestones nearly were overshadowed by his two penalties in the third period.
First, Reaves went off for tripping with 3:22 remaining. When that penalty was over, Reaves bolted from the box and ended up with the puck in his own zone with a little more than a minute left.
But in the excitement of going for his second goal, Reaves launched a rising, 175-foot laser over the Devils’ empty net and into the protective netting for a delay of game penalty with 1:02 remaining.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Reaves said. “I just blacked out for two seconds and I don’t really know. I’m not sure what happened, but that was interesting. Guessing I won’t be on the 6-on-5 again, I’ll tell you that much.”
“He just missed the top corner,” Gallant quipped.
New Jersey pulled goaltender Keith Kinkaid for an extra attacker, but the Knights were able to kill off the 6-on-4 disadvantage despite missing top penalty killer Reilly Smith.
The right wing appeared to suffer a lower-body injury late in the second period and skated one shift in the third period before he went to the locker room.
The Devils managed six shots on the two power plays, and it was the second time in the past six games the Knights’ penalty kill came up big in the third period.
On Dec. 27, the Knights killedoff two power plays in the final six minutes to preserve a 2-1 win over Colorado.
“For me it’s more fun. I enjoy that part, especially at the end of the game,” said defenseman Brayden McNabb, who tied the game at 2-2 in the second period with his first goal. “We just tried to be hard in front of the net because they go to the net hard in there. They’re pretty pesky around the net. We did a great job with that.”
Reaves — or someone with access to his Twitter account — eventually was able to laugh at his late-game brain cramp.
He posted his photo next to the well-known internet meme of an exasperated LeBron James from the 2018 NBA Finals.
“I’m sure this will be on the Not Top 10 soon,” Reaves said.
@reavo7five pic.twitter.com/ynOsWsmP5w
— Ryan Reaves (@reavo7five) January 7, 2019
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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.
Three takeaways
1. More Patches. Left wing Max Pacioretty scored the winning goal in Anaheim on Friday, hustled home in time to see his son born early Saturday and notched the winning goal for the second straight game. It was the 48th game-winning goal of his career, the second-most in the league since 2010-11 behind Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (63).
2. Still streaking. Right wing Alex Tuch picked up an assist on Pacioretty’s goal in the second period to extend his points streak to a career high six games (2-5-7). Tuch leads the team in scoring with 33 points (14 goals, 19 assists).
3. In the circle. The Knights finished with a 38-29 advantage in faceoffs led by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who went 13-2. More importantly, they won four of five draws in the final 3:22 while short-handed, including all three in the defensive zone.
