Five Scorers, One Statement: Golden Knights Roll Past Predators 5-2 to Stay Atop the West

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

The second night of a back-to-back, on the road, one night after a loss that ended a four-game win streak, is where early-season contenders usually look tired. The Vegas Golden Knights looked like the opposite. Vegas got goals from five different skaters, a 25-save night from Adin Hill that included a penalty-shot stop, and a third period that turned a tie game into a rout, beating the Nashville Predators 5-2 on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The Golden Knights have won five of their last six, improved to 6-2-0, and their 12 points lead the Western Conference.

Reuters, in its Field Level Media account of the game, framed it the way the standings do: this was a team staying hot rather than bouncing back. Vegas trailed early, led, gave the lead back on a short-handed goal, and then simply took the game over — three unanswered goals across the final 22 minutes against a Nashville team that kept handing the puck back.

A First Period With a Little of Everything

Nashville struck first, 3:55 in. According to Reuters, Ryan O’Reilly picked off a Shea Theodore pass, moved the puck to Filip Forsberg, and then backhanded home the rebound for a 1-0 lead — a goal and, eventually, an assist on the night for the Predators’ captain. The answer took less than three minutes. A Nashville turnover started the sequence, Brett Howden intercepted a pass to keep it alive, and Tomas Hertl fired a shot over Juuse Saros’ glove at 6:46 to tie it.

Jack Eichel gave Vegas its first lead at 12:48 with the kind of effort play that fills a highlight package: Brayden McNabb put a pass into the crease, and Eichel, driving the net, extended one arm and flicked the puck past Saros. Moments later came the play that could have flipped the night. Nic Dowd was called for holding on a breakaway, Jack Drury took the penalty shot for Nashville, and Hill turned his wrist shot aside to protect the 2-1 lead. NHL.com’s recap flagged it as the save the rest of the game was built on, and it is hard to argue: a tie game in the first period, on tired legs, is a different animal than a lead.

Edstrom Answers, Karlsson Answers Back

Nashville’s tying goal, when it came at 8:45 of the second period, was the strangest of the night. Killing a penalty, Adam Edstrom broke in alone, lost the puck with Eichel chasing him down, chased it behind the net himself, regained control off the end boards and slipped a shot around Hill for the first short-handed goal of his career, per NHL.com. A 2-2 game, a building waking up, and a Vegas team that had played the night before in Minnesota — the setup for a Nashville win was all there.

William Karlsson dismantled it with 2:16 left in the period. Mitch Marner found him in the right faceoff circle, and Karlsson beat Saros over the stick-side shoulder for the tiebreaking goal — his second goal in two nights after opening his account in Monday’s 4-2 loss at Minnesota, the defeat that had snapped Vegas’ four-game win streak. The Associated Press noted it was Karlsson’s second straight game with the go-ahead kind of timing this team keeps getting from its middle six.

The Third Period Put It Away

Whatever suspense remained died in a 95-second span early in the third. At 4:49, Noah Hanifin found Trevor Connelly, whose shot went over Saros’ glove for a 4-2 lead. At 6:24, Brett Howden — who had started the sequence on Hertl’s opener and finished the night with a goal and an assist — deflected a shot between his legs and in off the left post. Five goals, five scorers, and by the end, 12 different Golden Knights on the scoresheet, with defenseman Rasmus Andersson collecting two assists.

The Hockey News’ recap of the game carried the voice of the Vegas bench: coach Ryan Craig praised a group that was ready to play from the start, pointed to Hill’s early work, and called the third period his team’s best of the night. That is the identity forming around this group through eight games. Opponents cannot simply key on Eichel or Marner, because the scoring is coming from everywhere — including, on Tuesday, a rookie in Connelly and a checking-line center in Howden finishing plays at the net front.

Nashville’s Puck Problem

The Predators’ side of the ledger explains the score as plainly as Vegas’ depth does. Nashville went 0-for-3 on the power play, got 20 saves out of Saros on 25 shots, and — the number that will dominate the film session — committed 24 giveaways. The Tennessean’s coverage of the loss reported coach Andrew Brunette describing his team’s puck management with one word: perplexing. O’Reilly’s two-point night and Edstrom’s short-handed effort were real, but a team that keeps donating possession to the conference leaders does not need much more analysis than that. Nashville fell to 2-2-2 and has now dropped four of its first six games.

Where Vegas Stands

Eight games into the season, the Golden Knights are 6-2-0, 3-1 on the road, first in the Pacific Division and owners of the Western Conference’s best point total. Doing it on the second half of a back-to-back, after the Minnesota loss had ended their win streak, makes Tuesday the kind of win that holds a room together in November. The schedule does not slow down: Vegas returns home to host the Calgary Flames on Thursday, October 15, while Nashville stays home to face San Jose.

Follow the Knights and the rest of the league on Previously’s sports hub, relive Monday’s streak-buster in our recap of the Minnesota game, and dig into the numbers in the Stats Hub.