Golden Knights rally from three goals down to defeat Maple Leafs in shootout
Trevor Connelly scored the shootout winner and Adin Hill made 21 saves as Vegas won its third straight.
LAS VEGAS · The Vegas Golden Knights erased a three-goal deficit and defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in a shootout Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena. Rookie Trevor Connelly scored in the fifth round of the shootout and goaltender Adin Hill stopped John Tavares to secure the win. Vegas improved to 4-1-0 with its third consecutive victory. The Maple Leafs lost veteran defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson to an injury late in regulation.
Jack Roslovic, Easton Cowan and Nick Paul scored in the first 8:37 of the game to give Toronto a 3-0 lead. Mark Stone started the comeback for Vegas with a slap shot at 17:36 of the first period. Brett Howden scored at 1:12 of the second period before Jack Eichel tied the game on a penalty shot at 3:58. Eichel added an assist, extending his point streak to five games and bringing his season total to 12 points.
After a scoreless third period and overtime, the game went to a shootout. Braeden Bowman and Kirill Marchenko exchanged goals in the first two rounds. With the shootout tied after four rounds, Connelly delivered the breakthrough. "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." Hill then stopped Tavares to secure the victory.
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Hill made 21 saves and denied four of Toronto's five shootout attempts. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 40 shots for the Maple Leafs. Vegas outshot Toronto 43-24 overall and 36-15 after the first period. The Golden Knights went 0 for 4 on the power play, their first game without a power-play goal this season. Marner praised Hill's composure after the early goals. "I feel like Hilly's so calm and confident himself, regardless of what happens before, so you see that tonight," Marner said.
Ekman-Larsson was injured on a hit by Jeremy Lauzon with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. He fell hard to the ice and was slow to get up but skated off on his own before heading to the locker room. He 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.
Roslovic's opening goal 34 seconds into the game was his 300th career point in his 600th career game. Cowan scored on a breakaway at 3:20, and Paul made it 3-0 at 8:37. The Golden Knights host the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday at 7 p.m. PT.
With files from Sportsnet, The Globe and Mail and Yahoo Sports