SAN JOSE—The Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks competing always makes for compelling action on the ice, especially with the latter being hailed as a team on the rise and the volatile elements that have recently been added on both sides.
However, in this preseason exhibition, the rivalry was secondary in the mind of 18-year-old defenseman Juho Piiparinen.
The first-round pick of the Golden Knights in June after the fallout of the Pavel Dorofeyev trade with the New York Rangers , Piiparinen was given his opportunity to show the Golden Knights coaching staff the type of player they invested in. While the defenseman has played against grown men in his native Finland, and likely will continue to do so once training camp concludes, the NHL experience will always find ways to be vastly different.
However, Piiparinen was up for the challenge, making a number of plays against some of the NHL-caliber talent he was put up against and aiding the Golden Knights in their 2-1 victory over their rival.
The first two periods were controlled by San Jose for the most part, which was an unsurprising development due to the Sharks playing more of their regular NHL lineup.
However, not only did Piiprinen stay ready, but Carter Hart was also able to make some key saves when the defense broke down in front of him. He matched up well against Sharks goaltender Yaroslav Askarov , pulling off impressive stops against the likes of Michael Misa and Collin Graf .
However, the Sharks would finally break through on the power play after Joe Fleming was called for elbowing. After Hart got the best of him all game, Misa finally got his opportunity when a puck bounced off of Vegas defenseman Antti Tuomisto and landed on his stick, giving San Jose the first lead in a hard-fought battle.
However, the Golden Knights would get their fair share of chances throughout the game, with Jackson Hallum getting good chances for the second straight preseason outing.
However, it would be a reclamation project in Alexander Holtz making the difference. His line with Tanner Laczynski and Jonas Rondbjerg was Vegas' most impressive on both ends of the ice, but Holtz would get a one-timer off with Braeden Bowman getting to the front of the net.
Piiparinen would then make his finest play of the night, stopping a play between two of San Jose's best forwards in Tyler Toffoli and Igor Chernyshov to preserve the tie and force overtime.
After Hart would make more key saves during the overtime period, the Golden Knights would wind up going to the shootout. Despite starting goals from Matyas Sapovaliv and Ivar Stenberg for both teams, Bowman would finish the job after getting a shot through Askarov's five-hole, followed by Hart stonewalling Chernyshov and Luca Cagnoni to give Vegas the win.
Hart deserved the first star of the game with his performance, stopping 28 of 29 San Jose shots for a stellar .966 save percentage.
The Golden Knights now head into friendlier confines for the remainder of the preseason, returning to T-Mobile Arena to face the Utah Mammoth on Thursday and finishing the slate against these same Sharks on Saturday.
