The Vegas Golden Knights completed a 3-0 sweep of their three-game homestand by knocking off the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Sunday night.
Nic Roy, Tomas Hertl, Jack Eichel and Nic Hague all scored while Ilya Samsonov made 36 saves for Vegas.
that poor puck 🚀 pic.twitter.com/3OCqGVEge3
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 24, 2025
The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights moved five points in front of the idle Edmonton Oilers, both with 12 games to play.
The Golden Knights are now enjoying an 11-3-2 run since Feb. 6, and carry their momentum on the road for three games, as they’re set to visit Minnesota, Chicago and Nashville next week.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
TOMAS HURT-L: Hertl, who scored his team-leading 31st goal of the season, left the game late in the third period when he crashed into the end boards after being shoved by Tampa Bay defenseman Emil Lilleberg. Hertl raced in on a breakaway, but was stonewalled by Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. As Hertl went to gather the rebound to his left, Lilleberg pushed him into the boards. Hertl immediately skated off the ice and into the locker room and did not return. Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said he was being evaluated after the game and will be re-evaluated in the morning. The Golden Knights are scheduled to leave for Minneapolis/St. Paul on Monday morning.
Here’s the replay of the Tomas Hertl injury. pic.twitter.com/qRGzGYYEWJ
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) March 24, 2025
WHAM BAM THANK YOU SAM: Samsonov snapped a two-game skid with one of his best performances of the season, considering the opponent and the offensive threat the Lightning can be at times. Tampa Bay’s 38 shots tied for the team’s sixth-most this season. It was the third-most shots Samsonov has faced this season.
“He was solid,” Cassidy said. “I thought he was really under control, they’re a volume shooting team. I thought we protected against the odd-man rush type of chances for the most part. But there’s a lot of stuff coming to the net. They rotate pucks well, they get three-high with traffic. So he was able to fight through that and find all the pucks, and then we’re able to help him out with the clears and box out.”
PLAYOFF PREVIEW: If the playoffs were to start Monday, the Golden Knights would host Minnesota in the opening round of the playoffs, as the Wild are currently hold the No. 1 wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The teams will meet for the final team in the regular season on Tuesday in St. Paul. The Knights won the first two meetings, 3-2 in Minnesota on Dec. 15 and 4-1 on Jan. 12 in Vegas. The teams met in the 2021 postseason, when the Golden Knights took the seven-game series, 4-3.
“It’s massive. We might play them down the stretch, so we gotta impose (our) game and show we can do against them,” Roy said. “But right now we really want to focus on getting that first seed in the division, the home ice advantage. That’s our goal, so we’re gonna keep pushing for that.”
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