Vegas Golden Knights: Theodore’s buzzer beater goal beats Lightning

Thanks to Shea Theodore’s buzzer beater, the Vegas Golden Knights overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Tuesday.

Special teams were the name of the game tonight in Las Vegas. Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore scored the game-winner on the power play with 2.3 seconds to go in regulation. Both teams clicked on the power play throughout the evening, going a combined six for nine with the extra man.

The Tampa Bay Lightning jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period, converting on both of their power play opportunities. Goals came from familiar faces in Steven Stamkos and Vladislav Namestnikov. The goals were their 13th and 14th of the season, respectively.

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The Stamkos goal came on one of the most fundamentally sound power plays you’ll see all season. Nikita Kucherov settles the puck along the right wing. He plays a little give-and-go with Namestnikov on the goal line.

Eventually, he feeds the puck over to Victor Hedman at the top of the offensive zone. Hedman fakes a shot, but lets up and nudges the puck over to a gliding Stamkos in the left circle, who fires in the one-timer. There was some chaos in front of the net, but Golden Knights netminder Marc-Andre Fleury didn’t have a prayer of stopping this one.

Vegas power play leads comeback

Fleury was solid the rest of the way, stopping 25 of 26 Lightning shots in the last two periods. Meanwhile, Vegas got four power-play goals of their own. Theodore posted assists on the first three goals, which would be banner night for any player. His dramatic one timer to secure two points for Vegas was heart stopping.

Golden Knights forward David Perron doesn’t get on the scoresheet for this one, but his puck battle in the corner sets the play up. Eric Haula takes the puck out and whips it up to Jonathan Marschessault. As Theodore winds up, Marchessault puts it right in the sweet spot for a one-timer.

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It wasn’t quite as fundamentally sound as Tampa Bay’s power play to open things up, but it was a fitting end to a night of firewagon hockey.