The Vegas Golden Knights found themselves in unfamiliar territory when the buzzer sounded on regulation Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. After outscoring their opponents 24-8 in their previous four home games, the Golden Knights were headed to overtime for just the second time this season and first time at home.
In the organization’s first-ever matchup against the Utah Hockey Club, the Golden Knights were looking to respond to a dismal showing in Los Angeles.
It wasn’t perfect, but the Golden Knights did just that.
After trailing 2-0 in the second period, Vegas evened things up with a last-second goal from Noah Hanifin in the middle frame before taking a 3-2 lead on William Karlsson’s second of the year early in the third. However, Utah responded at 13:10, ultimately forcing overtime.
But just 2:15 into the extra frame, Brett Howden scored his sixth goal of the year with an outstanding individual effort to improve Vegas’ undefeated record on home ice to 8-0-0.
The Golden Knights held Utah without a shot for the first 11:52 of the game, but the first shot against ended up in the back of the net. A rare Mark Stone turnover in the neutral zone and a subsequent breakdown in coverage left Logan Cooley alone in the slot to give the road team the 1-0 edge.
Utah doubled its lead almost exactly a full period later, as Ian Cole’s shot hit Nicolas Hague in front before finding its way past Adin Hill.
Just over three minutes later, however, Pavel Dorofeyev scored his seventh of the year.
Tomas Hertl recorded the 500th point of his NHL career with the primary assist after Howden kept the play alive at the blue line.
Vegas continued to fight its way back and eventually got rewarded.
The Golden Knights tied the game on a last-second goal as Hanifin found twine for the first time this season.
Hanifin became the 18th different skater to score for Vegas this year, which leads the NHL.
Vegas outshot Utah 15-7 in the second and 9-3 in the first for a combined 24-10 through 40 minutes.
At 5:37 of the third period, the Golden Knights grabbed their first lead of the night courtesy of Karlsson, who now has points in all four games he’s played this season.
But Utah’s Alex Kerfoot netted the equalizer on a rebound with just under seven minutes remaining.
In the ensuing overtime frame, the Golden Knights put the finishing touches on their eighth home win of the year.
On an extended shift, the Vegas bench was yelling “they’re tired, they’re tired,” and the Golden Knights took full advantage of Utah’s fatigue with a key line change, putting a rested Howden on the ice. Howden followed through with a gorgeous individual effort to beat Connor Ingram and lift Vegas to victory.
“Whenever you’re in OT and you see the other team kind of hemmed in their zone for a while, you know how exhausting it can be,” Hanifin said. “If you can get fresh bodies out there, it’s really dangerous, so I think we did a good job taking advantage of that.”
Hanifin has struggled at times this season and has failed to produce offensively, but he had an impressive three-point game. His buzzer-beater with less than a second on the clock in the second was a key turning point in the game, and he assisted on Karlsson’s go-ahead goal as well as on Howden’s game-winner.
“That’s the game I’ve been trying to get to for a while,” he said. “Just getting up in the play, using my feet, using my skating ability. When I do that, I can try to open up some other things for other players. We don’t want to be defending too much, so just gotta keep building off that game.”
Howden’s solid start to the season continued, as his two-point effort helped deliver another two points to Vegas’ season total.
Howden doesn’t usually get ice time in overtime, but he made the most of it.
“He’s got some pace and can help out in the defensive side of things, and he’s still got good enough hands to finish plays,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It looks like maybe he’s finding his offensive game a little bit more. … We’ve talked about it enough that we need some people internally to step up to replace goals that left town, and he’s one of the guys that we identified, and good on him.”
Howden was one of several depth players who stepped up in a game in which the top line had a rare quiet night.
In particular, it was another strong game for the fourth line, as Keegan Kolesar and Nicolas Roy set up the Hanifin strike late in the second. In 11:34, the fourth line held a 15-10 edge in Corsi, 9-3 advantage in shots and managed a 83.95 percent expected goal share. Kolesar also dropped the gloves in the first period.
Hill turned out another performance with a save percentage under .900, though he faced just three shots in the first and 10 shots through two periods. Nevertheless, he stopped 16 of 19 for his third straight win and fifth of the season. Akira Schmid served as his backup, with Ilya Samsonov out with an injury.
But at the end of the day, another win at home only means so much, as the Golden Knights have to find a way to do it on the road. That’ll be put to the test with nine road games in November, starting Wednesday in Edmonton.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.