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Let It Snow: Golden Knights 4, Blackhawks 3 (SO)

A point well earned, although two would’ve been better.

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

An entertaining hockey game unfolded in Sin City on Tuesday night, although the Blackhawks could not hang on to a pair of one-goal leads, losing 4-3 in the shootout to the Vegas Golden Knights.

VGK scored 27 seconds into the game when Ivan Barbashev banked one in off the skate of Wyatt Kaiser:

Oliver Moore tied the game up about a minute later with this wrister:

Chicago went in front for the first time when Tyler Bertuzzi took advantage of a Carter Hart blunder near the middle of the second period:

Vegas tied the game later in the second with another goal off a Blackhawks defender, this time a Ben Hutton slapper that clanked in off of Matt Grzelcyk:

Chicago took a 3-2 lead about five minutes into the third period when Connor Bedard scored this absurd goal:

More looks at that later.

Based on the sheer beauty of it, that Bedard goal deserved to be the game-winner. That didn’t happen, though, because some porous Chicago defense resulted in this Braeden Bowman goal with 2:28 remaining to tie the game at three:

After a flurry of chances late in the third and during a wild overtime period, the game went to the shootout where Bedard did this:

Like his insane goal during regulation, Bedard’s shootout goal deserved to win the game. Alas, it did not, with Shea Theodore later scoring in the shootout to seal the second point for the Golden Knights.

Notes

He’s 20 years old. Twenty. Twenty! TWENTY!! How is he doing shit like this?!

Even Bedard’s passes are rattling goalies. Watch Hart in the net as this puck lands on Nazar’s stick:

In the last recap, LBR suggested the Hawks should give Bertuzzi-Nazar-Moore another look after they fared well in a limited sample against the Ducks, and the sample from this game offers additional support for that. In 10:25 of ice time together, it was an even 8-8 in shot attempts but was up 7-1 in scoring chances and 4-1 in high-danger chances, helping it tally an expected goal share of 61.05 percent. It scored twice but did allow the game-tying goal late in the third, as we’ll discuss in a bit. Still, plenty of positive signs from this group.

Nazar didn’t score on his third-period breakaway in the clip below, which means he is still without a goal since late October. But he seemed to be taking off on breakaways on a nightly basis earlier this season, so it was nice to see him recognize the opportunity and have the speed to pull away from VGK defenders in creating it. It feels like he’s getting closer to returning to 100 percent and, hopefully, that means some goals are on the way from him soon as well.

It’s probably better if Kaiser prevents this final pass from getting to Dorofeyev but give him credit for recognizing how quality of a scoring chance was developing as he quickly turned from defenseman to goalie during this second-period VGK power play:

Kaiser put out a fire he started just after that third VGK goal, too. Similar to the situation above, though, it’s better if this scoring chance never develops because a bad Kaiser giveaway starts it all:

Let’s take a longer look at that late VGK goal because the play seemed so harmless at first. Nine seconds after this low-quality screenshot below, the puck ends up in the back of the Hawks net. You’ll see that all five VGK skaters are on the screen and only one Hawk is applying any sort of pressure in Nazar. Moore is the one below the Jersey Mike’s logo, skating towards his own end.

As the puck gets to the Chicago blue line, though, Moore heads for an ill-timed change. Then, Louis Crevier probably goes a little wider than he should in challenging the initial puck carrier in Eichel and a cross-ice pass leaves him out of position. Tyler Bertuzzi is slow on the backcheck and suddenly there’s basically a 2-on-0 happening right behind Alex Vlasic.

And the guy who scores the goal wasn’t even in for that 2-on-0! Bowman is behind Nazar in the screenshot above and he pounces on the rebound from an incredible Spencer Knight save because neither Nazar nor Vlasic nor Bertuzzi bothered to tie him up and Crevier was painfully slow in returning to the high-danger area as the play developed. The full clip of the goal is below, detailing the collective failure by the Hawks defensive efforts that leaves their goalie out to dry with a few minutes left in a one-goal game.

Vegas goal! Scored by Braeden Bowman with 02:28 remaining in the 3rd period. Assisted by Shea Theodore and Ivan Barbashev. Vegas: 3 Chicago: 3 #CHIvsVGK #VegasBorn #Blackhawks

[image or embed]

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) December 2, 2025 at 11:44 PM

Credit to Moore for acknolwedging his misstep postgame, though:

Overall, not a bad night at the rink. This team clearly has the talent to be competitive in most games and has been able to grab leads later on, often thanks to the efforts of that talented kid wearing No. 98. Once it can learn how to defend those later leads, then we’ll really be on to something here. That’s the more difficult part of the process, though.

Want to watch Bedard put Shea Theodore in a blender one more time? Of course you do!

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Shea Theodore (VGK) — 2 assists, shootout winner
  2. Connor Bedard (CHI) — cool goal in regulation, cool goal in the shootout
  3. Braeden Bowman (VGK) — 1 goal, 1 assist

What’s Next

The Blackhawks head to the coast for the first of two consecutive games against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at 9 p.m.

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