Jack Eichel scored 1:19 into overtime and the Vegas Golden Knights clinched a playoff spot with a 3-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Saturday night.
Vegas (37-26-17, 91 points) jumped over Edmonton (90 points) into first place in the Pacific Division. Anaheim is third with 89 points heading into the final week of the regular season.
Eichel grabbed the puck in the Colorado end, skated down the left boards and beat goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood with a shot from the circle.
Mark Stone and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored and Carter Hart made 30 saves for the Knights.
Nick Blankenburg and Devon Toews scored and Blackwood turned away 26 shots for the Central Division-leading Avalanche (52-16-11, 115 points).
Colorado coach Jared Bednar left the bench early in the third period when he took a puck to the side of his head. The Golden Knights’ Keegan Kolesar carried the puck up the left boards and attempted to send it down the ice, but instead it went into the Avalanche bench and hit Bednar.
Bednar bent over holding his head and was taken into the locker room by a trainer. He did not return.
Colorado played the final 20 minutes without defenseman Josh Manson, who sustained an upper-body injury in the second period.
The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead on a power play midway through the first period when Toews wristed a shot that trickled through Hart and in at 9:17.
Vegas answered 12 seconds into its second power play of the night. Mitch Marner took a shot from the point that Tomas Hertl tipped as it went through the slot. Stone, parked in front of the net, knocked it out of the air and lifted a backhand by Blackwood at 13:47.
The Knights went ahead early in the second period. Kaeden Korczak kept the puck in at the blueline and passed down low to Ivan Barbashev, who fed Dorofeyev in the left circle, and he shot it over Blackwood’s left shoulder at 2:09.
Colorado evened it again when Blankenburg’s shot from the point hit the post, bounced off Hart and in at 10:56 of the second before a scoreless third period.
–Field Level Media
