NHL roundup: Golden Knights extend series lead with Smith’s lucky overtime goal

Golden Knights 4, Blackhawks

3 (OT): Even though Reilly Smith called it a lucky bounce, a whole lot more than luck is working right now for the Vegas Golden Knights.

Smith scored 7:13 into overtime, Robin Lehner made 22 saves and the Golden Knights beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in Edmonton on Thursday to take a 2-0 lead in the first-round series. Vegas has won all five of its games since the NHL resumed.

“We’re a pretty resilient group,” said Smith, who has three goals in the series. “We need to bring that for all 60 minutes … There’s still a lot of things we need to clean up, but we’ll take the win and try to get a little bit better tomorrow.”

Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford stopped 35 of the 39 shots he faced, including 16 in the third period.

The Western Conference top-seeded Golden Knights are looking for their first playoff series victory since 2018.

They reached the Stanley Cup final that year, then lost to San Jose in seven games in the first round last year.

This was the third game in the first round to go to overtime. Tampa Bay beat Columbus in the fifth overtime Tuesday, and Boston beat Carolina in double OT Wednesday.

“He’s come back from the pause and has got a lot of confidence, a lot of energy, he’s healthy,” coach Peter DeBoer said about Smith. “He’s really driving a lot of plays for us and important plays.”

Paul Stastny opened the scoring for Vegas 10:44 in after strong work down low by Smith and Jonathan Marchessault, and Tomas Nosek made it 2-0 about five minutes later.

Hurricanes 3, Bruins 2: Dougie Hamilton, playing just his second game since mid-January, scored at 8:30 of the third period to break a 2-2 tie and help Carolina even their series with Boston.

Hamilton played almost 27 minutes in his return Tuesday. Two days later, he played more than 24 minutes, had a teamhigh five shots on goal and scored the winner.