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Golden Knights 5, Blues 4: Vegas erases three-goal deficit, defeats St. Louis in overtime

Posted on by Jillian Wagner

The Vegas Golden Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the reigning Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues 5-4 in overtime Saturday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena.

Chandler Stephenson scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway just over three minutes into overtime to lift Vegas to victory.

It’s the kind of win that stands out in an 82-game season, and it marks the first time in franchise history that the Knights overcame a three-goal hole to win.

Things did not get off to a good start, though. At all.

It looked like it was going to be a rough afternoon as it was all Blues in the first period. Even Oskar Sundqvist worked his usual magic against the Knights when he put the Blues up 3-0 16:16 into the opening frame.

Gerard Gallant shuffled the lines for the second period, but it was Ryan Reaves‘ goal 13:10 into the frame that seemed to get the Knights going. Paul Stastny also struck against his former team just a few minutes later to bring Vegas within one.

It was all William Carrier on the play as he carried the puck through the zone, grabbing the attention of all five Blues skaters, who lost track of Stastny. Carrier sent a backhand feed that made its way to Stastny, who slammed it home.

The Knights proceeded to score the next two goals. The fourth line scored its second of the game courtesy of Nicolas Roy, and the Knights took a dramatic 4-3 lead when Reilly Smith scored after a great hustle play by Stephenson.

Stephenson broke up a pass in the neutral zone, raced into the zone to get to the puck and then dropped it back to Smith, who potted his 16th of the year.

But a three-goal comeback would not be enough for the win as the Blues knotted things up at 4-4 exactly three minutes later on a power-play blast from David Perron. It was a perfect shot by Perron, who had three points against his former team.

Stephenson was the one charged with the penalty, though (spoiler alert!) he made up for it later on.

The Knights had a late power play of their own that spilled into overtime, but the Blues had little trouble killing it off.

That’s when Stephenson took things into his own hands.

Alex Tuch pressured Robert Thomas along the boards in Vegas’ end, freeing the puck for Stephenson, who was gone in a flash. Stephenson went forehand-backhand and slid the puck five-hole past Jake Allen for the win.

It was Stephenson’s first career overtime goal and his eighth goal of the season; he has five goals and nine points in 16 games with the Knights.

Despite the scoreboard, the Knights held a significant edge in Corsi (54-36) and were particularly dominant in the third period with a Corsi For percentage of 70.37.

It was a rough game for the special teams, though, as the Knights went 1-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-2 on the power play.

Even so, it was a character win with key contributions from throughout the lineup. Nicolas Hague had two assists, the fourth line scored twice and Marc-Andre Fleury kept Vegas in the game in the second period when the Blues could have put this one away.

The Knights have won four games in a row and are 4-0-0 on their current homestand, which continues Tuesday against Pittsburgh.

St. Louis had lost two in a row coming into the game, but the Blues are the top team in the Western Conference and had beaten Vegas in each of the previous four meetings.

Though it was a big win for Vegas, the Knights did suffer a key loss as Cody Glass had to be helped off the ice and into the locker room after an awkward collision.

The Knights have two days off before Tuesday night’s tilt against the Penguins, but there was no update on Glass’ status following the game.

Talking Points