Smith’s 2 Goals Guide Vegas to Game 1 Victory

Last night the series between the Chicago Blackhawks and Vegas Golden Knights began.

 

Vegas would take the 1-0 series lead with a 4-1 win thanks to two goals by Reilly Smith.

 

Chicago Blackhawks Projected Lines and Defencive Pairings

 

 

Dominik Kubalik		Jonathan Toews		Brandon Saad
Alex DeBrincat		Kirby Dach		Patrick Kane
Alex Nylander		Dylan Strome		Drake Caggiula
Matthew Highmore		David Kampf		Ryan Carpenter
	Duncan Keith		Adam Boqvist
	Calvin de Haan		Connor Murphy
	Olli Maatta		Slater Koekkoek
		Corey Crawford
		Malcolm Subban

 

Unfit to Play: None

 

Scratched:

 

Collin Delia	MacKenzie Entwistle	Brandon Hagel	John Quenneville	Dylan Sikura
Phillip Kurashev	Nicolas Beaudin	Lucas Carlsson	Alec Regula	Nick Seeler
Kevin Lankinen

 

 

Vegas Golden Knights Projected Lines and Defencive Pairings

 

 

Max Pacioretty		William Karlsson		Mark Stone
Jonathan Marchessault		Paul Stastny		Reilly Smith
Nick Cousins		Chandler Stephenson		Alex Tuch
William Carrier		Nicolas Roy		Ryan Reaves
	Brayden McNabb		Nate Schmidt
	Alec Martinez		Shea Theodore
	Nick Holden		Zach Whitecloud
		Robin Lehner
		Marc-Andre Fleury

 

Unfit to Play: None

 

Scratched:

Patrick Brown	Dylan Coghlan	Oscar Dansk	Reid Duke	Deryk Engelland
Nicolas Hague	Keegan Kolesar	Peyton Krebs	Jon Merrill	Tomas Nosek
Gage Quinney

 

1st Period Summary and Analysis:

 

Good exchanges of puck possession are happening between both teams in the first game of the series.  Vegas would lose Shea Theodore for a brief period as he looked to get hit with an errant puck but would return to the ice after some discomfort.  He looked to get hit in the arm with a puck.

Not a lot of shots occur between both squads in the first ten minutes and it is a tough battle thus far.   There is a period where the Blackhawks do not get a shot off for over nine minutes and Chicago can’t expect to get many results with on ice action like that.

At the end of the first 20 minutes in the contest, we are scoreless.

 

1st Period Results:

No Goals
No Penalties

 

1st Period Stats:

 

	Chicago	Vegas
Faceoffs	11/17	6/17
Power Play	0/0	0/0
Shots	5	9
Hits	9	12

 

2nd Period Summary and Analysis:

 

A great shot for Chicago to get on the board would denied.  Jonathan Toews had a great shot but it would a great save by Robin Lehner to keep it a scoreless contest as the period would get underway.

Lehner would make great saves in front of the net as his left skate blade would break off of his skate before a halt in play would be made so that Lehner can get back in the net.

Pushing and shoving occurs at the 5:44 mark in the period in front of the Vegas bench after a Marchessault hit on Adam Boqvist. With that hit, the bench door would open and no one would get injured on the hit.  Toews would take exception to the hit and luckily there are no penalties doled out for the pushing and shoving.

Vegas would open the scoring at 7:22 in the period with a nice goal by Shea Theodore right under the arm of Corey Crawford.  The goal would be Theodore’s third in postseason play.  William Carrier would score to make the contest 2-0 with a goal at the 9:39 mark in the period.  The goal would be challenged for offsides but it would be determined that it is a good goal.  Because of that coach’s challenge being used, Vegas goes on the power play of a Delay of Game for the unsuccessful challenge.

Chicago would score a shorthanded goal at 10:49 with credit of the goal to going to David Kampf, his first of the postseason.  Chicago would be down briefly with a 5-on-3 penalty kill when Kirby Dach would be whistled for a tripping call at the 11:35 mark but the Blackhawks would kill both penalties that were doled out.

A holding call would put the Blackhawks on their first power play of the game when Brandon McNabb would head to the penalty box with 4:40 left in the period.  Play is whistled again for another skate repair job for Robin Lehner, his third skate repair in the game.  Vegas would successfully kill the penalty to keep the contest in their favour.

The second period would come to an end with no other penalties or goals.  Vegas heads into the second intermission leading 2-1.
2nd Period Results:

 

VGK Goal	Shea Theodore (3)	Assisted by	Reilly Smith (30	Alec Martinez (1)	7:22
VGK Goal	William Carrier	Assisted by			9:39
Coach’s Challenge for offsides: Unsuccessful
CHI Pen	Delay of Game – Unsuccessful Challenge	served by	Dylan Strome	2 min minor	9:39
CHI SHG	David Kampf (1)	Assisted by	Brandon Saad (2)		10:51
CHI Pen	Kirby Dach	for	Tripping	2 min minor	11:35
VGK Pen	Brandon McNabb	for	Holding	2 min minor	15:20

 

2nd Period Stats:

 

	Chicago	Vegas
Faceoffs	22/38	16/38
Power Play	0/1	0/2
Shots	14	21
Hits	16	25

 

3rd Period Summary and Analysis:

A Reilly Smith shot that bounced off of Crawford’s blocker into the net would give Vegas the 3-1 advantage at the 3:32 mark. It would be Smith’s first goal of the postseason.  Smith would score again at the 8:14 mark with a saucer pass from Jonathan Marchessault to make the contest 4-1 Vegas.  The assist by Marchessault would be his second in the postseason.

Vegas goes on the penalty kill at 10:44 for a holding call on Alec Martinez.  Vegas would kill the penalty after several great attempts by Chicago.

Vegas takes the game with a 4-1 win over Chicago and the 1-0 series lead in this best-of-7.

 

3rd Period Results:

 

VGK Goal	Reilly Smith (1)	Unassisted			3:32
VGK Goal	Reilly Smith (2)	Assisted by	Jonathan Marchessault		8:14
VGK Pen	Alec Martinez	for	Holding	2 min minor	10:44

 

3rd Period Stats:

 

	Chicago	Vegas
Faceoffs	33/60	27/60
Power Play	0/2	0/2
Shots	20	33
Hits	20	35

Game 2 takes place Thursday, August 13th at 5:30pm ET/3:30pm MT