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Golden Knights rally again to beat Blues, will play for top seed

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Shea Theodore and Alex Tuch each strike twice, while Colton Parayko also has two goals in a back-and-forth game where Vegas emerged with a 6-4 victory over St. Louis for its second Round Robin win.

For the second time in as many games the Vegas Golden Knights rallied from a two-goal deficit to win a Round-Robin game, keeping their chances for the top seed in the Western Conference alive.

On Thursday they stormed back for a 6-4 win against the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.

The win gives the Golden Knights an opportunity to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference this weekend if they can defeat the Colorado Avalanche in a potential Western Conference Final preview.

Vegas had previously overcome a 3-1 deficit against Dallas in its first Round-Robin game.

The Blues fall to 0-2-0 in Round-Robin play after losing on a Nazem Kadri buzzer-beater in its first game.

Shea Theodore and Alex Tuch both scored a pair of goals for Vegas on Thursday, while Mark Stone’s third period goal officially goes in the books as the game-winner.

[NBC 2020 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]

A few takeaways from Vegas’ win...

1. Do not let the relatively close final score fool you here. This was not a particularly close game as Vegas completely dictated the pace of play and controlled everything that happened on the ice. Simply put, this was domination. The Golden Knights finished the game with a 38-17 advantage on the shot chart and did not allow the Blues to record a shot on goal for the first 16 minutes of the third period. The only thing that kept it close was the fact starting goalie Marc-Andre Fleury struggled in his first postseason action.

There is a strong argument to be made that this is the best, most complete team in the Western Conference and they have dominated the Round-Robin phase while they still wait for Max Pacioretty to get back into the lineup. They may not have a true superstar on their roster, but they have a rock-solid team from top to bottom that is full of outstanding two-way players with Stone, Pacioretty, William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Peter Stastny and an underrated defense leading the way. The only thing that could potentially slow them down in the postseason is goaltending. That leads us to this...

2. Fleury was not good on Thursday. While Vegas controlled the pace of play, Fleury looked sluggish and was out of position on a handful of Blues goals to keep this game close. That brings us to a very big question: Is there any thought of using Robin Lehner in the first round of the playoffs? Fleury did not have a particularly strong season, he looked awful on Thursday, and the Golden Knights have one of the league’s top goalies sitting behind him after acquiring Lehner at the trade deadline from the Chicago Blackhawks.

There is a reason they made such a bold trade. Yes, it is a great insurance policy in case of an injury to Fleury. But it is also a great insurance policy in case Fleury does not play well. It is not a stretch to suggest that Lehner is the better player right now.

3. With their loss on Thursday this means the best the Blues can hope for is the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, which they can get if they defeat the Dallas Stars this weekend. That means the two Stanley Cup Finalists from a year ago, both of which were the No. 1 seeds in their respective conferences at the time of the regular season pause, will finish no higher than third when the playoffs begin. At the end of the day you still have to beat the top teams to win the Stanley Cup, but they are going to have a significantly tougher Round 1 matchup than they were probably anticipating.

MORE:
2020 NHL Stanley Cup Qualifiers schedule

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.