The Vegas Golden Knights (18-11-12) have gone to overtime 17 times in 41 games this season. They have won just five games that have gone past regulation, ending up on the wrong side of 12 of them. On Tuesday, they finally managed to flip the script, snapping a five-game losing streak with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Winnipeg Jets (15-21-5).
Over that losing streak– and the past nine games, where they had recorded just one win– the Golden Knights continuously found ways to lose games. Whether it was conceding a late go-ahead tally, allowing a goal on the first shift of the game, or blowing a multigoal lead, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
But on Tuesday, the Golden Knights dug themselves out of their hole. Every game has critical moments, and they finally came out on the right side of those.
“Tonight, we ended up getting the tying goal,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy postgame. “There’s been a lot of times we haven’t got the save, and we missed on our chance. Tonight it went the other way. So now you’re leaving here in a good frame of mind, and sometimes it’s as simple as that.”
The Jets opened the scoring at 5:16 in the first period. Gabriel Vilardi won a board battle and worked the puck back to Josh Morrissey, who found Jonathan Toews between the hash marks. Toews threaded a pass to Cole Perfetti, who snuck behind the defense and stuffed the puck past Carter Hart.
The Jets doubled their lead at 12:04 in the second period. Braedan Bowman lost a board battle, and Gabriel Vilardi came away with the puck. Vilardi found Luke Schenn at the point, who drifted towards the middle of the ice and beat Carter Hart from distance.
Facing another two-goal deficit seemed to wake the Golden Knights up. They allowed just one more shot on goal for the remainder of the period, while recording eight of their own. In the second period, they generated six high-danger scoring chances and allowed just two.
The Golden Knights got on the board in the last minute of the period. On the power play, Mark Stone banged in Pavel Dorofeyev’s rebound to extend his goal streak to five games.
In the third period, the Golden Knights played like they were tired of losing. They recorded the first nine shots of the period and controlled 70.68% of the expected goal share.
The Golden Knights found the equalizer at 8:13 in the third. Keegan Kolesar pressured the Jets into a turnover and chipped the puck deep for Tomáš Hertl below the goal line. Hertl found an activating Noah Hanifin, who blasted a shot on net, collected his own rebound, and set up Brett Howden for the one-time blast.
The Jets responded and took the lead again at 14:56 in the third. Jeremy Lauzon couldn’t clear the zone, and Gabriel Vilardi found Kyle Connor all alone in the slot.
In weeks past, the Golden Knights have faced their fair share of late-game deficits. The only difference is that tonight, they rose to the task.
Just 59 seconds after relinquishing the lead, the Golden Knights once again pulled even. Brandon Saad screened Connor Hellebuyck, and Reilly Smith banged in Ben Hutton’s rebound.
In overtime, both goaltenders made five saves. The Golden Knights gave up two good chances in the first seventeen seconds of overtime, but Carter Hart answered the bell.
Mitch Marner drew a penalty with under a minute remaining, sending the Golden Knights to their fourth power play of the night.
With just 13 seconds remaining, Tomáš Hertl played hero, deflecting Marner’s shot from the point past Connor Hellebuyck.
Three stars of the game: Luke Schenn, Brett Howden, Tomáš Hertl
