Rookie Connelly wins shootout as Golden Knights rally past Maple Leafs

LAS VEGAS — Trevor Connelly scored in the fifth round of the shootout to complete the Vegas Golden Knights' 4-3 comeback victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.

Connelly beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a backhand-forehand move before Vegas goalie Adin Hill denied Toronto's John Tavares to secure the win. "That's a move that I've kind of been doing in practice a bit, and it's seemed to work a lot," Connelly said. "So kind of just trusted what's been working in practice."

The Golden Knights improved to 4-1-0 with their third consecutive win after erasing a three-goal deficit. Toronto built a 3-0 lead in the opening 8:37 on goals from Jack Roslovic, Easton Cowan and Nick Paul.

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Roslovic opened the scoring 34 seconds into his 600th career game, slipping the puck between Hill's pads and the post from the goal line for his 300th career point. Cowan scored on a breakaway at 3:20, and Paul made it 3-0 at 8:37.

Mark Stone started the comeback with a slap shot at 17:36 of the first period. Eichel assisted, extending his assist and point streaks to five games.

Brett Howden tapped in Mitch Marner's pass at 1:12 of the second before Jack Eichel tied it on a penalty shot at 3:58. Eichel has three goals and 12 points through five games.

Hill made 21 saves and stopped four of five shootout attempts after allowing three goals on Toronto's first nine shots. Bobrovsky stopped 40 shots for the Maple Leafs.

"I think as a group, we just came together and kind of took over the game by our style of hockey," Connelly said.

"I feel like Hilly's so calm and confident himself, regardless of what happens before, so you see that tonight," said Marner, who had an assist. "Just stayed with it. We have a lot of trust in either of those boys in net. So, when we needed him massively, he made some big saves."

Vegas outshot Toronto 43-24 overall and 36-15 after the first period, including a 21-8 advantage in the second. The Knights went 0 for 4 on the power play, their first game without a power-play goal this season.

Braeden Bowman also scored for Vegas in the shootout, while Kirill Marchenko provided Toronto's only successful conversion.

The Maple Leafs lost defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson to injury late in the third period. He fell hard to the ice after a hit by Jeremy Lauzon with less than two minutes to go in regulation, skated off on his own, and did not return for overtime.

Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller told reporters he did not have an update on Ekman-Larsson's status after the game. Ekman-Larsson skated over 15 minutes in the game with zero points and two minor penalties.

Vegas hosts the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday at 7 p.m. PT.

With files from Sportsnet, The Globe and Mail and Yahoo Sports