Logan Couture scored on a breakaway 50 seconds into overtime to give the San Jose Sharks a 4-3 victory over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.
Couture intercepted Alex Pietrangelo’s crossing pass for Jack Eichel at the Vegas blue line and then skated in alone and fired a wrist shot through the pads of goalie Laurent Brossoit for the game-winner. It was his 26th goal of the season.
Mario Ferraro had a goal and an assist and Oskar Lindblom and Tomas Hertl also scored goals for San Jose (21-39-15, 57 points), which has won back-to-back games for the first time since sandwiching two victories around the All-Star break on Jan. 28 and Feb. 7.
San Jose defenseman Henry Thrun, making his NHL debut after starring at Harvard, added two assists, and James Reimer finished with 23 saves.
Nicolas Hague, Ivan Barbashev and Michael Amadio scored goals and Ben Hutton notched two assists for Vegas (46-22-7, 99 points), which became the first Western Conference team to clinch a Stanley Cup playoff berth before the game when Nashville was blanked 2-0 at Pittsburgh.
The Golden Knights, who didn’t qualify for the playoffs last season, had a seven-game road winning streak end.
Brossoit made 21 saves for Vegas, which heads into the final two weeks of the regular season with a two-point lead over second-place Edmonton, a 2-0 winner over visiting Los Angeles earlier Thursday. The Golden Knights hold a three-point edge on the Kings.
San Jose held the Golden Knights to just two shots on goal over the first 15 minutes while taking a 2-0 lead on goals by Ferraro and Lindbolm, who snapped a 24-game goalless drought.
Vegas cut it to 2-1 late in the first period. Reimer turned the puck over while trying to clear it behind his net and Hague capitalized with a one-timer off Hutton’s pass at 16:55. It was Hague’s third goal of the season and first in 36 games.
The Golden Knights tied it at the 1:08 mark of the second period on a power-play goal by Barbashev, his 15th tally of the campaign.
San Jose regained the lead, 3-2, midway through the period when Hertl redirected Martin Kaut’s pass off Brossoit’s stick and into the left corner of the net for his 21st goal.
Vegas pulled even at the 10:07 mark of the third period when Amadio swatted in a rebound of Chandler Stephenson’s shot through Reimer’s pads. It was his 14th goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
