Victor Olofsson scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, to lift the Vegas Golden Knights to a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday evening in Saint Paul, Minn.
Shea Theodore notched a goal and an assist for Vegas, which bounced back from a loss in Edmonton one day earlier. Jack Eichel tallied two assists.
Kirill Kaprizov scored twice for Minnesota, which lost for the third time in the past five games. Mats Zuccarello finished with two assists.
Vegas goaltender Ilya Samsonov stopped 20 of 22 shots to improve to 7-3-1.
Minnesota goaltender Jesper Wallstedt made his season debut and turned aside 24 of 27 shots. The Wild promoted Wallstedt from Iowa of the AHL on Saturday.
Minnesota jumped to a 1-0 lead 90 seconds after the opening faceoff. Zuccarello won a battle for the puck in the corner and flipped a backhanded pass to Kaprizov, who buried a one-timer past Samsonov stick side.
Vegas pulled even at 1-1 on the power play with 10:29 left in the first period. Olofsson received a pass near the blue line, carried the puck to the top of the right circle and fired a wrist shot into the net. Frederick Gaudreau was off for a closed hand on the puck.
Vegas struck again to seize a 2-1 lead with 13:56 remaining in the second period. Theodore capitalized on an odd-man rush and ripped a wrist shot past Wallstedt for his fourth goal of the season and his third in the past five games.
Kaprizov erased the deficit with his second goal of the game and his team-high 22nd of the season. The Wild’s star forward caught a fluttering puck out of midair, dropped it to the ice and fired it into the net to make it 2-2 with 3:04 to go in the second period.
The Golden Knights took a 3-2 lead with 16:11 remaining in the third period. Olofsson netted his second goal of the game and his seventh of the season when he flipped a shot through traffic from the right circle.
–Field Level Media
