The Vegas Golden Knights head into Sunday night’s game at Vancouver clinging to a three-point lead in the Pacific Division and attempting to sweep a back-to-back for the third straight time.
Vegas (46-22-8, 100 points), which held a nine-point lead in the Pacific just a week earlier on March 29, narrowly avoided seeing that margin dwindle down to one point before pulling out a 3-2 overtime victory at Calgary on Saturday night.
The Golden Knights gave up two goals over a 51-second span at the end of the second period and the beginning of the third to squander a 2-0 lead. They needed backup goalie Akira Schmid to make a glove save on Mikael Backlund’s shorthanded breakaway try with just two seconds left just to get to overtime.
“If he doesn’t make that save at the end, we don’t get a point,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Reilly Smith won it with his second goal of the game with 28.4 seconds left in OT. His backhand pass from the left corner behind the goal line caromed off the skate of defenseman MacKenzie Weegar and then off the right shoulder of goalie Dustin Wolf and into the net for the game-winner.
“I was just trying to get the puck in front to Brett (Howden),” Smith said. “It took a fortunate bounce.”
Smith admitted the team’s flight from Calgary to Vancouver afterward would be a whole lot smoother after the dramatic win. The Golden Knights lead the second-place Los Angeles Kings by three points with six games remaining for both teams.
“A bit of relief for sure,” Smith said. “I think we did enough in the game to win. Sometimes bounces don’t go your way and teams claw back in. I don’t think there was any real panic in this locker room at all throughout the game. … Just keep the foot on the gas and you’re going to get a fortunate bounce every now and then, and that’s great for us right now.”
Cassidy said winning the Pacific Division might pay dividends when the playoffs begin.
“If we win the title, we do guarantee less travel and home ice,” Cassidy said. “We’ve been really good at home (27-9-3) this year, and the travel can be a factor. Teams out west know that. That can be a factor if you have an extended run. Those are all ‘if’s’ right? And it’s something we want. Our guys are competitive. They want to win.”
Vancouver (35-28-13, 83 points) is six points behind Minnesota in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Canucks come in off a 6-2 victory over visiting Anaheim on Saturday afternoon that saw Rick Tocchet’s squad score five goals over a span of 4:30 in the first period en route to a 5-1 lead. It was a franchise record for the fastest five goals at any point in a game.
Quinn Hughes had two assists, Brock Boeser had a goal and an assist and Thatcher Demko made 30 saves for the Canucks who snapped a three-game losing streak (0-2-1).
“Getting to the postseason is slim,” Tocchet said. “We talked (on Friday) about details and professionalism, that’s something we have to work on every day, so got to give them a lot of credit. Really enjoyed the first period, a lot of fun watching the guys make some plays.”
This is the third of four regular-season meetings between the two teams. Vegas won the first two by identical 3-1 scores on Dec. 19 and Feb. 22 in Las Vegas.
-Field Level Media
