The Vegas Golden Knights knocked off the first-place Winnipeg Jets with a 4-3 win Friday night at T-Mobile Arena in the first half of a back-to-back set. It was the club’s ninth comeback win of the season, which leads the NHL.
The Golden Knights returned home from a 3-1-1 road trip and found their way back into the win column thanks to two goals from Brett Howden and Ivan Barbashev, who scored one apiece in the first and third periods.
Howden’s game-winner late in the third period was his 10th of the season, which set a new career high.
Winnipeg’s Cole Perfetti also lit the lamp twice, including when he opened the scoring on a tip in front just under seven minutes into the opening frame.
Vegas was the better team in the first, outshooting Winnipeg 14-6 and holding a 10-3 edge in scoring chances, 7-2 lead in high-danger chances and a 75.67 percent expected goal share, per Natural Stat Trick.
Eventually, Vegas got the results to show for it with two late goals in the span of just 91 seconds.
First, Howden scored his first of the evening and ninth of the season. After intercepting a pass and blowing past Jets defender Logan Stanley, Howden capped off the singular effort with an unassisted beauty.
Barbashev followed suit, giving Vegas a 2-1 lead with just 16 seconds remaining in the period. It was a tic-tac-toe play on the rush, with Jack Eichel finding Pavel Dorofeyev in the slot for the one-timer and then Barbashev putting home the rebound while falling.
Perfetti netted the only goal of the middle frame to even things up at 2-2. Josh Morrissey directed a shot at Adin Hill’s pad to set up the rebound goal for Perfetti at 14:28.
Less than five minutes into the third, Barbashev scored his second of the night off a slick backhand pass from Eichel, who recorded another two points tonight.
Yet again, however, Winnipeg was able to reset the score, as Neal Pionk’s deep shot beat Hill through traffic at 8:55.
Exactly seven minutes later, Howden gave the Golden Knights their third one-goal lead of the game. This time, it would stick.
In his 700th career game, William Karlsson made a gorgeous play to set up the game-winner, launching a tape-to-tape backhand pass across the zone to the cutting Howden, who stashed it behind Eric Comrie with 4:05 remaining.
Winnipeg got its third power play of the game with less than three minutes left, but Vegas came through with a huge late kill for the third straight game. The Golden Knights shut down the NHL’s top power play to close out the 4-3 win.
It was a surprisingly high-energy performance by the Golden Knights coming off the holiday and an extended road trip. However, the club continues to perform on home ice. Vegas’ passing was especially noticeable, and the Eichel-Barbashev combination continues to be lethal.
Though Vegas did not face starting netminder Connor Hellebuyck, it’s still a big two points against the team at the top of the standings.
Vegas improves to 15-6-3
The Golden Knights will wrap up the back-to-back tomorrow night as they square off against Utah for the third time this month. Vegas won both of the previous matchups. Utah also played last night and is coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to Edmonton.
Prior to the game, Vegas announced that the club had recalled Victor Olofsson from his conditioning stint and reassigned Mason Morelli and Robert Hagg to the AHL. It’s unclear if Olofsson will be in the lineup tomorrow, but he is nearing a return.