Golden Knights Stifle Devils in Dominant 3-1 Victory

On Thursday evening, the Vegas Golden Knights took on the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. It was the first time Alexander Holtz and Paul Cotter faced each other since they were part of a trade between the two teams. While neither found the scoresheet, it was the Knights who emerged victorious, as Adin Hill made 16 saves in a 3-1 victory. The Knights improve to 32-17-6; the Devils fall to 30-20-6.

The first period started out pretty slow, but the Knights had the better of the chances. Allen stood tall on some Grade-A chances to keep it scoreless at the horn.

Just a little over three minutes into the second, there was a strange sequence. Simon Nemec’s shot was blocked. Nobody seemed to know where it went except Nicolas Roy, who went on a partial breakaway. Allen stopped the initial shot, but Roy banged the rebound home to give Vegas a 1-0 lead. The Knights continued to have the better of the chances, and then Shea Theodore scored to make it 2-0.

????Shea it's 2-0 (oh woah woah)???? pic.twitter.com/bvYkDKpyhz

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 7, 2025

It was a particularly rough night for the Devils’ Nemec, who was playing his first game in a few months after getting recalled from the American Hockey League. He was benched for the latter half of the second period after repeated miscues continued to hurt the Devils.

The third period was more of the same for the Devils. Less than five minutes in, Jack Eichel put in a rebound to make it 3-0. At that point, it might as well have been 17-0 because New Jersey’s offense was close to nonexistent. They finally got one to go as Ondrej Palat scored a power play goal with a little over 4 minutes remaining. But that’s where the score stood, as the Knights continued to pepper Allen with shots, tallying a 39-17 shots advantage in the win.

Both teams will return to action once before the 4 Nations break. The Devils will head north to Montreal to face the Canadiens on Saturday afternoon (1:00 PM ET); the Knights will ship up to Boston to play the Bruins (3:30 PM ET).