Nicolas Hague scored on a delayed penalty with 2:56 left in overtime to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 5-4 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.
Hague blasted a one-timer from the top of the left circle past the glove side of Nashville goalie Kevin Lankinen for his second goal of the season and his first career overtime goal.
Chandler Stephenson had a goal and two assists, Keegan Kolesar had a goal and an assist and Mark Stone finished with three assists for Vegas which snapped a two-game losing streak. Reilly Smith and Michael Amadio also scored goals and Logan Thompson made 33 saves for the Golden Knights who will enter 2023 with a Western Conference-best 52 points.
Filip Forsberg scored his eighth career hat trick and Jeremy Lauzon also had a goal for Nashville which was playing the second game of a West Coast back-to-back that began 22 hours earlier with a 6-1 victory at Anaheim. Lankinen finished with 27 saves.
Nashville jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 11:22. Forsberg got the first when he picked up a Brayden McNabb turnover in the left corner and then skated around the crease, outwaited Thompson and then banked in a wrist shot off the far post. Lauzon followed with his first goal in 35 games when he zipped a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle over Thompson’s glove.
Vegas cut it to 2-1 at the 15:56 mark of the period when Kolesar deflected Daniil Miromanov’s point shot into the top right corner for his fourth goal of the season while also snapping a 19-game point drought.
Amadio tied it 1:43 into the second period with a one-timer from the left circle off a Stone setup for his fifth goal of the season. A little over seven minutes later, Smith gave the Golden Knights their first lead with his team-leading 18th goal of the season.
Stephenson made it 4-2 early in the third period when he one-timed a Stone pass from the high slot past Lankinen’s glove side for his 10th goal of the season.
Forsberg then cut it to 4-3 with 8:18 to go when he deflected a Ryan McDonagh point shot for his team-leading 13th goal of the season.
Lankinen was pulled for an extra attacker with 1:32 remaining and Smith then picked up a high-sticking penalty 22 seconds later to give the Predators a 6-on-4 advantage. Forsberg then tied it with 4.3 seconds left with a wrist shot from the left circle.
Forsberg nearly won it early in overtime when he fired a wrist shot off the post.
–Field Level Media