Smith’s overtime goal leads Vegas to win
Winning score comes with 2:22 left in extra session
Reilly Smith’s overtime goal lifted Vegas to a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Friday night that snapped a two-game losing streak for the Golden Knights.
Smith’s power-play goal with 2:22 left in the extra period came off a onetimer from Jonathan Marchessault’s pass.
Mark Stone, Tomas Nosek, Alec Martinez and Marchessault also scored for Vegas. Marc-andre Fleury, playing after being removed from COVID-19 protocol due to a false positive, made 19 saves.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Zach Sanford each had a goal and an assist, and Ryan O’reilly also scored for the Blues. Jordan Binnington made 35 saves as St. Louis lost its third straight game in overtime.
The teams complete a two-game set on Saturday.
David Peron’s powerplay goal, set up by a falling Brayden Schenn, gave the Blues a 4-3 lead with 9:20 left in the third.
Martinez answered 47 seconds later, scoring off a rebound of Shea Theodore’s shot to tie it at 4.
Vegas took control with two goals in a 35-second span late in the first period.
Stone got it going with a tip for his seventh of the season. Marchessault banged home a rebound off Smith’s shot to make it 2-0 with 4:31 left in the first.
O’reilly got the Blues back in it with a onetimer at the 5:14 mark of the second period, set up by some slick tic-tac-toe passing by Justin Faulk and Zach Sanford.
Wild 4, Coyotes 0: Rookie Kirill Kaprizov recorded his first NHL hat trick and Cam Talbot made 25 saves for his first shutout of the season as Minnesota beat Arizona. Kaprizov snapped the scoreless tie 5:47 into the third period and added his second goal just more than two minutes later for his first multi-goal game. He scored his third in the final seconds after Jonas Brodin added an emptynet goal.
Note: The Blue Jackets acquired defenseman Mikko Lehtonen from the Maple Leafs for goaltender Veini Vehvilainen.