Golden Knights beat Calgary Flames, 2-1
The Golden Knights-Calgary Flames game was the hottest ticket in the NHL on Wednesday and also cost more than the most expensive NBA game, according to a secondary market reseller.
The announced crowd of 18,422 at T-Mobile Arena won’t be asking for a refund.
Deryk Engelland scored the decisive goal midway through the third period and the Knights held on to beat first-place Calgary 2-1 for their fifth consecutive victory.
Shea Theodore had the other goal and William Karlsson added two assists for the Knights, who trail the Flames by 10 points in the Pacific Division with 14 games remaining.
The teams wrap up their season series Sunday at Calgary.
“It’s huge. They’re a good team. They’ve been playing well lately,” Theodore said. “To really battle that out and grind out that one-goal game right to the end, it was a good feeling.”
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, coming off back-to-back shutouts, finished with 33 saves for his league-leading 33rd victory. He tied Jacques Plante for eighth on the all-time list with 437 career wins.
Fleury, the NHL’s First Star of the Week, had his career-long scoreless streak halted at 200:30 when defenseman Travis Hamonic scored in the second period. In his hot streak, Fleury has stopped 109 of 111 shots.
The Flames were intent on creating traffic in front of Fleury and had a Johnny Gaudreau goal in the first period overturned by video review for goaltender interference.
Calgary agitator Matthew Tkachuk backed into Fleury with 18.4 seconds left in the second period to spark a fracas that ended with a staredown between Fleury and Flames goalie David Rittich.
Engelland, who spent three seasons with Calgary before being selected in the expansion draft, notched his second goal and first since Dec. 6 at 9:30 of the third.
He zipped a shot from the point through traffic that Rittich never saw thanks to a great screen in front by Jonathan Marchessault.
“It’s always nice to see guys score against their former teams and score game-winning goals,” said Knights forward Reilly Smith. “It was good to see. He steps up time and time again for this team. He did that again tonight.”
Calgary dropped its third straight and lost for the first time in the opening game of a back-to-back (7-1-0).
The Flames remained winless at T-Mobile Arena and have been outscored 15-4 in their four visits.
Rittich suffered the loss in Monday’s 6-2 pounding against the Maple Leafs but came back to finish with 36 saves.
The Flames entered Wednesday fourth in the league in goals per game (3.55), and coach Bill Peters changed his No. 1 line with Tkachuk joining Gaudreau, the team’s leading scorer, and center Sean Monahan.
Gaudreau appeared to tie the score 1-1 with 4:49 remaining in the first when he swooped in to collect a long rebound and backhanded a shot as Fleury was doing a barrel roll in his crease.
The Knights challenged for goaltender interference, and NHL video replay officials overturned the ruling on the ice.
Theodore put the Knights ahead at 8:34 of the first period when he sent a torpedo into the top corner on a power play for his 11th goal after Mark Stone’s initial shot was kicked out by Rittich.
“We were getting pucks to the net and it kind of just bounced out,” Theodore said. “Sometimes you got to get it back there as fast as you can and I guess it found a hole.”
Theodore set a franchise record for goals by a defensemen in a season, surpassing Colin Miller’s mark of 10 from last year.
Calgary answered with 8:06 left in the second period on Hamonic’s blast from the top of the right faceoff circle one second after a penalty to Marchessault expired.
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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.
Three takeaways
1. Bon anniversaire. Knights center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare celebrated his 34th birthday Wednesday, but didn’t earn a point in his 13:39 of ice time. Bellemare had a brief shoving match with Calgary goaltender David Rittich in the second period and nearly stuffed in a shot in the final five minutes of the second.
2. Pencil him in. Center William Karlsson played in his 150th straight game with the Knights and finished with two assists. Karlsson is the only player to appear in every game in franchise history and has played 170 consecutive games overall.
3. No Neal. Former Golden Knights wing James Neal was scratched with a lower-body injury and missed his 10th consecutive game. The 31-year-old has five goals and 15 points in 55 games with the Flames after signing as a free agent.
