Forward wins it with 8 seconds left after Hertl ties it with 52 seconds remaining in regulation
VGK at NYR | Recap
Jack Eichel scored with eight seconds remaining in overtime to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 3-2 come-from-behind victory against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
Brett Howden won a face-off in the defensive zone back to Shea Theodore, who quickly banked it off the side boards into the neutral zone, where Eichel picked it up before finishing on a breakaway with his forehand at the right post.
“Great win by ‘Howes,’ then great pass by ‘Theo,’” Eichel said. “It was sort of a set play we had planned, and it was nice to see it get executed, but it doesn’t happen without a face-off win.”
VGK@NYR: Eichel whips it in the backdoor for game-winning goal in overtime
Eichel’s goal came after Tomas Hertl tied the game 2-2 with 52 seconds remaining in the third period. A pair of roughing minors prompted a 4-on-4 for the final 1:58 of regulation, but Vegas pulled Hart for the extra attacker on the play, and Hertl beat Quick with his backhand on a rebound in the low slot.
“The ice was slow, bouncy after the early NBA game, so we said, just, ‘Let’s shoot it, let’s put the puck at the net,’” Hertl said. “[Marner] made a great play for a high tip, almost scored, and we just say, ‘Keep shooting, and the pucks will be there.’ The puck got to me and I just put it in, so definitely a big goal for us.”
Howden also scored, and Mark Stone extended his personal point streak to 12 games with two assists for the Golden Knights (14-6-8), who have won four in a row. Carter Hart made 21 saves.
“It’s great to win, right? You come out of the first period and you feel like you’re in good shape, your game’s coming. You get punched in the face in the second period, right? Thinking you’re back to starting over again, like it was just two opposites,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We got a little disrespectful in how we’re managing pucks and playing through people versus not playing through people and allowing them ice, and their top guys are all over the sheet. If it wasn’t for Carter, I don’t know.”
Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers (15-12-4), who also lost 3-2 in overtime to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Jonathan Quick, who was activated off injured reserve on Saturday, made 26 saves in his first start since Nov. 22.
“We’re showing the right intentions in the way we play. We talked about it earlier in the season,” Zibanejad said. “I thought we played similarly like this, but we didn’t really get the result. … Just control what we can. Some things happened that we can’t control, but that’s unfortunate.”
Howden scored 36 seconds into the game to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. He scored through Quick’s five-hole after a feed from Mitch Marner through the slot.
VGK@NYR: Howden whips in a wrister to kick off the scoring 36 seconds into the 1st
Zibanejad tied the game 1-1 at 9:08 of the second period. He chipped in a loose puck over Hart’s left pad with his backhand.
Lafreniere gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead at 13:01 with a wrist shot from the right circle that hit underneath the crossbar.
“We clearly didn’t have our legs or our energy in the first. The guys responded really well after that. We competed hard,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought the second period we were the dominant team. So, I’ll give the guys a lot of credit for how they responded. We get down a goal and we just kept fighting. I thought after the first we competed really hard all night.”
NOTES: Stone has 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) during his personal point streak. … Rangers captain J.T. Miller played in his 900th career NHL game.
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