The Vegas Golden Knights (18-11-12) secured their first victory of the new year with a 4-3 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets (15-21-5) Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre.
The Golden Knights rallied from a 2-0 deficit and then answered less than a minute after Winnipeg scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period to force overtime. Tomas Hertl completed the comeback with the game-winner on the power play with less than 13 seconds left in the extra frame.
The win snapped a five-game losing streak and was just the Golden Knights ‘ second win in the last 10 games after Vegas went 1-5-3 in the previous nine. The Golden Knights wrapped up a rough road trip with a 1-1-1 record.
Sloppy play by the Golden Knights set up the Jets’ first chance of the night, and Winnipeg’s first shot of the game made its way into the net. Cole Perfetti skated across the crease and scored on the backhand to give the home team the 1-0 lead 5:16 into the contest.
A scary collision between Keegan Kolesar and Haydn Fleury sent Fleury sliding back-first into the boards. He had to be stretchered off the ice. Kolesar answered the bell when Adam Lowry stood up for his teammate, though the contact did not appear to be malicious. Fleury reportedly was alert on his way to the hospital, but he suffered multiple injuries on the play, including a broken nose.
Winniped led 1-0 through 20 minutes in a period in which Vegas generated just one high-danger chance, including after getting a power play 16 seconds into the game.
Bruce Cassidy shuffled the lines in the second period to try to get something going, moving Mark Stone to the top line, putting Mitch Marner with Brandon Saad and Reilly Smith and putting Pavel Dorofeyev on the fourth line with Braeden Bowman and Colton Sissons.
Both teams looked pedestrian for much of the second period, but it was the Jets who scored the next goal. Defenseman Luke Schenn — skating in the 1000th game of his career — found twine from the blue line to make it 2-0 at 12:04 of the second.
It was another long-range goal from distance, which has been a source of frustration for Cassidy throughout Vegas’ recent slide. Hart was screened by his own teammates and seemingly never saw the puck.
But it wasn’t until the Golden Knights were in a two-goal hole that they started playing. The Golden Knights finally broke through in the final minute of the period on their second man-advantage of the night.
It was none other than the captain, who scored for the fifth straight game. Stone’s goal came at 19:09 and cut the deficit in half going into the second intermission.
It was another rebound goal for Stone, and it was absolutely critical for the Golden Knights.
Stone is just the fourth player in franchise history to score a goal in five straight games; Max Pacioretty scored in seven straight in 2021-22, and William Karlsson and Erik Haula both lit the lamp in five straight in the inaugural campaign.
Shots were 14-9 Vegas through two periods in a game between two teams who looked largely inept. But in the second period, Vegas led 19-11 in Corsi, 8-4 in shots, 12-3 in scoring chances and 6-2 in high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick.
The Golden Knights looked much better in the third period, and Brett Howden tied the game with his eighth of the year 8:13 into the frame. The goal came off a fantastic play by Noah Hanifin, who recovered his rebound and fed the puck to Howden.
At one point, Vegas led 16-2 in shots following Schenn’s goal, but the Golden Knights began to lose some puck battles later in the period, and Kyle Connor made them pay. A costly turnover led to Connor’s 20th of the year, giving the Jets a 3-2 lead with 5:04 remaining.
It seemed like a dagger to a Vegas club on quite a skid. But once again, as soon as the Golden Knights were trailing, they found their way.
In fact, Reilly Smith — one game removed from serving as a healthy scratch — answered 59 seconds later with the equalizer.
Smith went to the net and was in the right place at the right time to capitalize on the rebound off Ben Hutton’s deep shot. It was Smith’s sixth goal of the year, and it saved the Golden Knights from a disastrous regulation loss and earned them a point.
But it was Vegas’ league-high 17th overtime game of the season, and the Golden Knights have struggled mightily in extra time this season, often sitting back and allowing other teams to set the pace (and win the game).
But Vegas was prepared to play with a different mindset, and Cassidy demonstrated this by starting overtime with three forwards on the ice. He put Hanifin out there after Vegas lost the faceoff, but the Golden Knights had possession and the better play early in the extra frame.
The Jets had some grade-A looks later in overtime, however, but Hart came up with some massive stops. He has been mediocre (at best) in recent games, but he saved his best for overtime, making several point-blank stops to keep his team in it.
The Golden Knights then got a power play when Marner was tripped as he crossed the zone. This set up a 4-on-3 with 51 seconds left.
For the second time in the game, the power play came through. It was a strange play, as Marner’s shot deflected off Hertl, hit the post and then hit Connor Hellebuyck on its way into the net. But it got the job done, earning Vegas the extra point and a much-needed victory.
The Golden Knights had to win this game.
It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t convincing, but they got it done.
They were able to stop the bleeding and collect an important two points.
Vegas was desperate for a win after another disappointing overtime loss against Chicago earlier this week. They were facing the worst team in hockey that was in the midst of its own nine-game losing streak. But based on how the Golden Knights came out, one would never know it.
The Golden Knights didn’t look anything close to desperate, and they didn’t look anything like a true contender. That is, until they were trailing 2-0.
At that point, the Golden Knights woke up. They were hungry and aggressive, and they went to work. Stone, who has only played three games this year in which he hasn’t recorded at least a point, made it a one-goal game going into the third, and Howden reset the score nine minutes later.
“[The Jets] are trying to protect the lead, and they haven’t won in a while,” Cassidy said. “You can get a little bit conservative sometimes because you don’t want to make a mistake, so you can push a team, and I thought we did a good job with that.”
The fact that the Golden Knights almost blew the game by giving up the next one is concerning, and it doesn’t reflect this team’s pedigree. But the fact that Smith answered immediately is, at the very least, a positive.
“I think we always think that we can claw our way back in games,” Smith said. “We’ve done it quite a bit of times this year. I think the tricky part for this team is not falling behind so many times in a game. We make it difficult for ourselves, but it’s nice to be able to come out of this one with two points.”
This game shouldn’t have required overtime, and it shouldn’t have taken the Golden Knights so long to wake up, especially against the team in 32nd place in the league standings. The Golden Knights eventually did show up, and they found a way to win, which is something they haven’t been able to do over the last few weeks. But this win wasn’t an example of true Golden Knights hockey, at least not for a Golden Knights team looking to make a deep playoff run.
Even so, perhaps it will be a line in the sand the Golden Knights can use as they try to move forward from here and turn things around.
Their first chance to do so will be Thursday at home against Columbus. Vegas will wrap up the short two-game homestand Saturday against St. Louis before hitting the road to complete the weekend back-to-back Sunday in San Jose.
Needless to say, the Golden Knights need to show up on time if they want to clean things up before the Olympic break.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.
Photo via @GoldenKnights on X