Mikko Rantanen scores career-high 40th goal in 3-0 win over Vegas

The Vegas Golden Knights are 6-1-3 in their last ten games with 76 points on the season and sit atop the Pacific. They fell to the Dallas Stars 3-2 in the shootout on Saturday, but they’ve been a strong team coming out of the All-Star break even in spite of their goaltending issues.

Both the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Knights would debut newly acquired players – though for Colorado, theirs was not so new.

Returning to Denver is defenseman Jack Johnson from the Chicago Blackhawks. The Avs parted ways with 27-year-old Andreas Englund to make it possible one-for-one. For Vegas, St. Louis sent forward Ivan Barbashev to the Knights in exchange for prospect Zach Dean.

Barbashev would definitely immediately bolster Vegas’ forward group, but the Avs would have to make some things happen in the absence of Cale Makar who is still going through concussion protocols.

Also in concussion protocol is Kurtis MacDermid who took a hit to the head in his fight with Milan Lucic in the Calgary game. Jack Johnson would debut on the bottom-pairing, and the Avs would run 12-6 with Ben Meyers recalled from the Colorado Eagles.

First Period

In net for Vegas was 26-year-old Adin Hill. Fourteen seconds into the game’s start, Hill played the puck behind the net and intended to clear, but Mikko Rantanen’s pressure down low allowed him to swipe it down and bat it in given the net was also empty with Hill behind it.

You could see the burst of energy it added. The Avs controlled possession through much of the period. The shots favored Vegas in the first half, but Colorado created the most chances (with several missed or blocked). By the end, the shots were even 11-11.

Second Period

At 13:18, Rantanen and Brett Howden received matching minors for roughing. Shortly into the subsequent 4-on-4, Sam Girard went down and Chandler Stephenson went to the box for cross-checking. As a result, Colorado had a chance at 4-on-3.

Though they could not capitalize, the man advantage allowed the Avs to establish the zone and maintain pressure even after its expiry.

Rantanen tried to settle the puck but lost it to Shea Theodore. Fortunately, pressure from Evan Rodrigues forced Theodore to cough it back up to Rantanen who angled it to Rodrigues up to J.T. Compher. Compher skated out to the left circle and found Rantanen again. Rantanen wristed it in from the bottom of the circle to score his 40th goal of the season – a career-best.

Thirty-five seconds later, an unusual sequence with Phil Kessel caught Andrew Cogliano up high. Kessel was called for an illegal check to the head, but subsequently Alex Newhook took a holding the stick penalty so it was neutralized.

The Avs built around the momentum of the first period nicely. Special teams were a non-factor at this point with penalties that canceled out and just one, brief man-advantage which helped to create the pressure on their second goal.

But Colorado continued to ramp up where it mattered. They continued to control possession at every strength and they gained an edge in shots (high danger and otherwise). Ten of Vegas’ opportunities came about in between the hash marks, but Alexandar Georgiev had an answer for them.

Third Period

At the midway, Colorado had their first real penalty kill. Denis Malgin went to the box for tripping, and Colorado made a nice effort to shut it down. Vegas had an attempt blocked and another shot that missed, but the Avs were able to keep them from getting one on net.

Vegas, in an effort to climb back into this game, had a slight edge in creating chances throughout this frame, but it was severely limited and the Avs nipped at their heels the entire time.

At 3:44, the Knights pulled Adin Hill. Even though they lost the defensive zone faceoff, with the help of Val Nichushkin, Nathan MacKinnon cleared the puck from his end to score the empty-net goal and won this game 3-0.

With 31 saves, Alexandar Georgiev earned his third shutout of the season.

Observations

Ben Meyers’ confidence: Now in his 31st game of the season, Meyers has inched forward step by step into his rookie year. On a repeat cup contender, he was never likely to be thrown directly into the deep end. Instead, he’s had the chance to split time between the American League to work on the finite details of his game. In 17 games with the Colorado Eagles, he’s found more of a scoring touch with three goals and six assists – two of his goals and two of his assists came about in the month of February.

You can see the confidence building him despite being kept off the scoresheet at the NHL level outside of a single, unusual goal at the start of the season. You see it mostly in his confidence to step up into the play, apply speed on the rush, and get to the dangerous areas of the ice.

He had two shot attempts, one of which was high danger, and another attempt blocked. Others have struggled to make themselves visible with fourth-line minutes, but Meyers has adopted a Logan O’Connor school of thought, ‘When you can’t bring your ‘A’ game (scoring), you better bring your ‘B’ game and have an impact in other ways.” So long as he continues to be defensively responsible and take risks, he remains a young hopeful built for this Avalanche forward group one day.

Mikko Rantanen’s power: Even when he isn’t having a two-goal night, Rantanen’s dominance this season is noteworthy. Not only did he achieve a career-first 40 goals with two tonight, but he has also had goals in the last five games and he has 24 more games to continue producing. He’s at 71 points and his current career high is an impressive 92 points, but he will have some runway left to top it. His shooting percentage is close to a career-high (though the COVID-shortened year skewed this a bit), but he’s far and away a team leader in that right at 17.4%.