Ex-Wild winger Alex Tuch scores twice to kick-start Vegas offense

If Peter DeBoer had his druthers, the Vegas Golden Knights coach would roll his regular four lines and rely on his team's depth to score.

Instead, the absence of the injured Max Pacioretty, the Golden Knights' leading goal-scorer in the regular season, prompted DeBoer to move Alex Tuch from a productive third line to left wing on the first line, hoping to get right winger Mark Stone and center Chandler Stephenson going.

While the move made midway through the Golden Knights' Game 1 first-round playoff loss didn't produce immediately as Wild goalie Cam Talbot had a 42-save shutout, it did pay dividends in Tuesday night's Game 2 in Las Vegas.

Tuch, a player the Wild fan base knows all too well, scored the go-ahead goal 17:19 into the second period, then delivered the dagger on a goal with 51 seconds left in the third as Vegas defeated Minnesota 3-1 to even the series at a game apiece.

"It's huge going forward, not only tonight," said Tuch, who scored both of his goals in front of the net. "We had a couple, three different opportunities right there on the doorstep. That was our mentality, to try to get inside of them."

On Sunday, Tuch replaced left winger Tomas Nosek and delivered a burst of speed and energy to the line. On Tuesday, Tuch made his biggest impact late in the second period.

After the Wild and Vegas traded goals 18 seconds apart, Tuch, left alone in front of the Wild goal, took a pass from Mattias Janmark from behind the net and quickly fired a shot past Talbot with 2:41 left in the period.

DeBoer was impressed by the consistency of the 6-4, 220-pounder.

"Tuchie's such a dynamic skater, and when he's using that size and that speed and getting to those tough areas of the rink, he's a really hard guy to handle," DeBoer said. "He's consistently been doing that, and when he does, he gets rewarded. He's been excellent."

Tuch sealed the victory on a power-play goal with 51 seconds left, giving him five goals and three assists against the Wild in the 2020-21 regular season and postseason. In 18:10 of ice time Tuesday, he led the Golden Knights with five shots, delivered two hits and won two of his four faceoffs.

That Tuch is playing for Vegas is a tribute to how former Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee managed the expansion draft back in 2017. Knowing that the Wild didn't want to lose a defensive prospect like Jonas Brodin or Matt Dumba, McPhee made a deal with former Wild GM Chuck Fletcher. Vegas would not pick Brodin, Dumba or any forward prospect and would agree to sign free agent center Erik Haula. The price of that, however, was the Wild sending Tuch, their 2014 first-round draft pick out of Boston College, to the Golden Knights.

It's paid off marvelously for Tuch, who had 15 goals and 22 assists as a rookie in 2017-18 and added six goals and four assists in 20 playoff games as the Golden Knights advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.