The Vegas Golden Knights completed the sweep of their weekend back-to-back with a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks Sunday night at Rogers Arena after downing the Flames by the same score 24 hours earlier.
Though both games were tied late in the third period, Sunday’s contest did not require overtime thanks to Victor Olofsson’s game-winning goal with 3:14 remaining in the third period.
Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy also scored for Vegas, and Adin Hill turned aside 19 of 21 shots for a .905 save percentage. Hill was particularly strong on the penalty kill and made an especially memorable glove save while shorthanded in the second period.
The Golden Knights outshot the Canucks 12-2 in the final frame and 35-21 on the night. Vegas (47-22-8) now leads the Kings (44-23-9) by five points in the Pacific Division standings, though Los Angeles has a game in hand.
It was all Canucks at the start of the first period, as Vancouver registered six of the first seven shots of the game. Less than five minutes in, one of those shots found the back of the net, as Nils Hoglander potted his seventh of the season on the rebound.
It was another instance where Vegas lost a race to a loose puck around the crease, but the Golden Knights tightened up their play after the goal.
Just under four minutes later, Barbashev scored a dandy after deking around Canucks netminder Kevin Lankinen for goal No. 21 on the season.
Roy gave Vegas its first lead of the night at 13:15. Much like Reilly Smith’s game-winner in Calgary, Roy’s tally took a fortunate bounce (or two), first off Lankinen’s pad and then off a defender’s skate.
Vancouver scored the lone goal of the second period in which Lankinen really shined with 13 saves, five of which were of the high-danger variety.
Aatu Raty reset the score 8:03 into the middle frame. Raty made contact with Hill at the top of the crease, which prompted a Vegas challenge for goaltender interference.
However, the review upheld the call on the ice of a good goal, leading to a Vancouver power play.
Much like he was in the opening frame, Hill was the Golden Knights’ best penalty killer, and he came up with a stellar glove save off a tic-tac-toe play in front to keep the game knotted at 2-2.
The third period was a one-sided clinic by Vegas. The Golden Knights led 25-14 in shot attempts, 12-2 in shots, 8-3 in scoring chances and finished with a 75.86 percent expected goal share. In the end, the only advantage that mattered was the 1-0 edge in goals.
The game-winner didn’t come until the final final four minutes, but Olofsson put Vegas up 3-2 at 16:46 off a fantastic setup by William Karlsson, who drove behind the net, held off the stick of defenseman Quinn Hughes and found Olofsson in front.
It was another impressive performance by that line, which finally got rewarded. Olofsson’s marker helped Vegas collect two points and reach 47 wins and 102 points in 77 games. The Karlsson line led 7-3 in shots, 6-3 in scoring chances and 1-0 in goals. Olofsson finished the night with the game-winner on a game-high five shots after recording nine in Calgary; he has 14 in his last two games after recording 14 in his previous 13.
But it wasn’t just that line that contributed. It was a balanced effort by the Golden Knights, who got goals from three out of four lines. The only line that didn’t light the lamp was the line that finished with the best analytics on the night.
In fact, the Pavel Dorofeyev, Brett Howden and Brandon Saad unit led 17-7 in shot attempts, 4-2 in shots, 7-3 in scoring chances and 2-0 in high-danger chances with an 83.58 percent expected goal share while leading all lines in ice time with 12:28.
Jack Eichel remains somewhat snakebitten but had an excellent chance early in the third when he hit the crossbar. He is in the midst of a four-game scoring slump as he remains seven points shy of reaching the 100-point plateau for the first time in his career.
One area of growing concern for the Golden Knights is the power play, which went 0-for-2 on the night. The man-advantage is the best in the NHL but has not been the same without Tomas Hertl, who remains out with an upper-body injury after getting shoved into the boards against Tampa Bay back on March 23.
The power play has been a significant factor in the team’s success this year, proving to be a difference-maker in countless contests throughout the campaign. Despite going 3-for-4 in the three games following Hertl’s injury, Vegas has since gone 0-for-6 in April in four games against Western Conference opponents.
Vegas may have managed to win back-to-back road games against Calgary and Vancouver without it, but the absence of a game-breaking power play makes the Golden Knights a less dynamic and less threatening offense. The good news for Vegas is that Hertl recently returned to practice in a non-contact jersey.
After discouraging losses to Edmonton and Winnipeg, the Golden Knights bounced back and earned four critical points in this mini Western Canada road trip, a back-to-back they will repeat in two weeks to wrap up the 2024-25 campaign. Until then, Vegas will finish this three-game road trip in Colorado on Tuesday before returning home to host Seattle and Nashville (and Jonathan Marchessault) in the final regular-season games at T-Mobile Arena this season.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick