Jack Eichel scored the game-winner at 2:44 of overtime and also had three assists as the Vegas Golden Knights rallied for a wild 6-5 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Eichel, cutting down the slot, took a pass from Mark Stone, deked Toronto goalie Joseph Woll and then roofed a backhand shot to extend the Golden Knights’ season-high winning streak to a six games.
Vegas’ Tomas Hertl tied the game with seven seconds left in regulation.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored a pair of power-play goals, Stone had a goal and two assists, Hertl recorded two points and Keegan Kolesar also scored for the Golden Knights.
Mitch Marner, who heard his share of boos from Maple Leafs fans who made the trip from Toronto, had two assists in his first game against his former team since going to the Golden Knights in a sign-and-trade deal for center Nicolas Roy on July 1.
Vegas goalie Adin Hill, playing for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury on Oct. 20, finished with 23 saves.
William Nylander, who played just four shifts before leaving with a lower-body injury, and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who are 0-1-1 since a 6-0-1 stretch.
Toronto’s Matthew Knies and Matias Maccelli both had two assists and Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly and Scott Laughton also scored goals. Woll made 27 saves.
The Maple Leafs, playing their third game in four days on a road trip, jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 2:05 mark of the first period when Rielly scored.
Nylander made it 2-0 three minutes later when he roofed a backhand shot over Hill’s right shoulder.
Vegas cut the gap to 2-1 on a power-play goal by Dorofeyev, who one-timed a pass from Marner from the right circle.
Matthews made it 3-1 midway through the period with his ninth in the past 10 games when Jake McCabe’s shot caromed in off his skate.
The Golden Knights closed within 3-2 early in the second period when Kolesar, stationed in front of the net, swept in a rebound of a Braeden Bowman shot.
Tavares put the Maple Leafs back up by two goals midway through the period with a power-play goal, deflecting a Maccelli shot over Hill’s right shoulder.
Vegas made it 4-3 at the 2:10 mark of the third period with another power-play goal by Dorofeyev, who tapped in a rebound of a Marner shot that bounced to him off the end boards.
Laughton extended the lead to 5-3 midway through the period, finishing a 2-on-1 with Knies with a one-timer past Hill’s glove side. Stone jammed in a rebound of a Ivan Barbashev shot just 76 seconds later to cut Vegas’ deficit to one goal.
Dorofeyev appeared to tie it with 4:10 to go for a hat trick when he redirected a Marner pass past Woll’s stick side. However, as the hats were being picked up off the ice, Toronto successfully challenged that Dorofeyev was offside on the play.
Hill was pulled with an extra attacker with 1:30 remaining, and Hertl tied it when he redirected Eichel’s pass into the slot past inside the right post.
–Field Level Media
