Despite having a great performance by their goaltender, the Arizona Coyotes fell to the Las Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 in a preseason game at T-Mobile Arena in Vegas.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Besides forwards Jack McBain, Travis Boyd, and defensemen Troy Stetcher and Josh Brown, the majority of the ‘Yotes lineup were minor leaguers and prospects.
And it showed.
First Period
It wasn’t until 11:51 left in the first period where the Coyotes got their first shot, coming from defensive prospect Maverick Lamoureux.
Both sides were in the neutral zone most of the first 20 minutes with no dangerous scoring chances.
After a scoreless first, the shots were 9-3 in the Knights favor.
Second Period
In the second period, it was filled with penalties and offensive pressure from the home team.
To begin the period, Coyotes forward Aku Räty saw a wide-open Lamoureux and tried to pass it to him.
Golden Knights center Brett Howden blocked the initial pass with his skate, but Räty poked the loose puck to Lamoureux who ripped the puck past Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson’s glove for a 1-0 lead 2:58 into the second period.
Goal‼️ pic.twitter.com/q9WN5Kz4Ro
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) September 30, 2023
Coyotes goalie Connor Ingram made a huge save as Vegas winger Michael Amadio sent a saucer pass to his line-mate Pavel Dorofeyev for a one-timer, but Ingram did the splits and his right toe saved a Grade A scoring chance.
Moments later, Knights defenseman Nicholas Hague skated across the blue line, saw an opening to shoot, and fired through three players before the puck found its way into the net past Ingram to knot the game up 1-1 at 11:35 in the second period.
Since the “Yotes goal, the shots were 12-3 before Las Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore was tripped by Coyotes winger Milos Kelemen.
On the power play, the Golden Knights capitalized.
Vegas defenseman Kaedan Korczak shot the puck at Howden in front of the net.
Then, Howden gave it to Brendan Brinsson who had a wide-open net to shoot at and scored a power-play goal to give the “VGK” a 2-1 lead with 15 seconds left in the second frame.
At the end of 40 minutes, both teams had three penalties each.
Third Period
The third period had a few good saves by the goalies, but like the first period, not much went on.
With 32 seconds left, Knights forward Byron Froese and Coyotes prospect Josh Doan had a race towards the empty Coyotes goal after Ingram was pulled to have a 6 on 5 advantage.
Doan poked the puck off of Froese’s stick as they neared the net, but Vegas center William Karlsson picked the free puck up towards the corner and sent a backhand shot into the vacant goal to seal a Knights 3-1 win.
Postgame Recap
The Coyotes offense was ice-cold as they were 0-for-5 on the power-play and only had 10 shots.
Despite giving up 3 goals on 28 shots, Ingram made big saves when it counted, but got close to no offensive support.
Meanwhile, Thompson had an easy night, facing 10 shots and giving up 1 goal.
The Coyotes play the Anaheim Ducks in their only preseason game in Arizona at the Tucson Convention Center Arena on Oct. 1 at 3 p.m.
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Alec Cipollini is a journalist covering the Arizona Coyotes and Phoenix Rising for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his new X account @CipolliniBCS
