Victor Olofsson scored the go-ahead goal with 3:14 remaining to lead the visiting Vegas Golden Knights to a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.
William Karlsson set up the game-winner when he carried the puck behind the net and then backhanded a pass to Olofsson alone in the low slot. Olofsson snapped a wrist shot past the glove side of Kevin Lankinen and inside the right post.
Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy also scored goals for Vegas (47-22-8, 102 points), which increased its Pacific Division lead to five points over the idle second-place Los Angeles Kings with the win. Adin Hill made 19 saves to pick up his 30th victory of the season.
Nils Hoglander and Aatu Raty scored goals for Vancouver (35-29-13, 83 points), which fell eight points behind the Minnesota Wild (42-29-7, 91 points) for the final Western Conference wild-card spot with just five games remaining. Lankinen finished with 32 saves.
Vancouver took a 1-0 lead at the 4:46 mark of the first period when Hoglander, back after missing six games with an undisclosed injury, swept in a rebound of a shot by Pius Suter.
Vegas tied it midway through the period when Barbashev took a pass from Mark Stone on the left wing and then cut in front of the net and swept a backhand shot in around Lankinen’s left pad.
Roy gave the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead a few minutes later when the rebound of his slap shot caromed in off the back of the skate of defenseman Victor Mancini.
The Canucks tied it, 2-2, midway through the second period on a rebound goal by Raty in front of the net. Vegas unsuccessfully challenged for goaltender interference on the sequence. Replays showed that Raty had bumped into Hill’s glove in the blue paint before Hill made a save on a Filip Hronek shot prior to Raty’s rebound score. The Golden Knights then successfully killed off the ensuing delay of game penalty.
–Field Level Media
