Knights kick off 2025 by earning comeback win against Flyers

Danny Webster, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jan 3, 2025

Published in Hockey

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LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Golden Knights have been good following losses this season.

It didn’t look that way after the first period Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers. But as the Knights have become accustomed to, they found a way to get things going in the right direction.

The team scored three goals in the second period to beat the Flyers 5-2 at T-Mobile Arena. The Knights (26-9-3) got goals from five different players to bounce back after having their six-game winning streak end against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

The team improved to 9-4 following a loss. It got 23 saves from goaltender Ilya Samsonov, who won his fifth straight start.

Things couldn’t have started much worse for the Knights against the Flyers.

They trailed just 21 seconds in after left wing Tyson Foerster found a soft spot near the front of the net and gave his team a 1-0 lead.

Philadelphia, like Montreal 48 hours before, stifled the Knights with its forecheck in the first period. The Flyers had an 8-4 edge in shots on goal at the first intermission.

It didn’t take long for the Knights to mount a comeback. They scored twice in the first 2:13 of the second period to take the lead.

Captain Mark Stone scored on a tip in front thanks to a pass from center Jack Eichel 51 seconds into the frame. Then defenseman Nic Hague forced a turnover and got his third goal of the season on a wraparound.

“There wasn’t a ton going on in the first period,” Stone said. “We gave up an early goal on not a great defensive play and not much else happened. I thought we kind of decided to take some initiative, get some pucks to the net and force their goalie to make saves.”

Right wing Pavel Dorofeyev stretched the Knights’ lead to 3-1 with 1:38 remaining in the second period. He fired a wrist shot from the right circle for his second goal in four games.

Right wing Alexander Holtz added another goal for the Knights 2:46 into the third period, while left wing Tanner Pearson sealed the win by scoring into an empty net with 36 seconds remaining.

“The third was pretty good,” Stone said. “When you can get it to 4-1 and stretch the lead, it makes it that much more difficult for teams to come back. That’s something we didn’t do in the Montreal game when we had some chances late in the second period on the power play. I thought tonight we were able to do that.”

The win was the Knights’ 11th in 13 games. They held their opponent to two goals or fewer for the 10th time in that stretch.

They’ll wrap up their four-game homestand Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres.

Here are three takeaways from the win:

1. Everyone accounted for

The Knights recalled center Tanner Laczynski from Henderson earlier in the day as a precaution, but didn’t need him.

Coach Bruce Cassidy said Thursday morning an unnamed forward was a game-time decision with an undisclosed injury. It didn’t matter. No skater ended up coming out of the Knights’ lineup against the Flyers.

2. New career-high

Dorofeyev’s goal was his 14th of the season, surpassing the career high he set last year.

The 24-year-old hit his first NHL slump by not scoring in 11 games from Nov. 29 to Dec. 23, but he’s gotten his groove back the last couple weeks.

3. Holtz breaks through

Holtz needed to score even more than Dorofeyev. The 22-year-old’s tally was his first point since Dec. 4

Holtz left the game midway through the third period after blocking a shot with his right knee. He struggled to put weight on it as he went to the locker room, but he returned with four minutes remaining.