Hertl, Golden Knights rally from down 3 in 3rd, top Avalanche in OT

LAS VEGAS -- Tomas Hertl scored at 1:23 of overtime for the Vegas Golden Knights, who rallied from down three in the third period for a 4-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday.

Hertl deflected in Jack Eichel’s wrist shot from behind the left circle on the power play.

“Always nice to score in overtime,” Hertl said. “It's always the game-winner, but hopefully, I have a lot of goals in the playoffs.”

It came after William Karlsson tied it 3-3 with 3:37 remaining in the third with his second straight goal after Vegas trailed 3-0 entering the period.

Ivan Barbashev scored, and Adin Hill made 21 saves for the Golden Knights (44-28-8), who won their second in a row and pulled to within one point of the Los Angeles Kings for third place in the Pacific Division.

“I think having one of those where we weren't at our best and we stuck with it. It would have been easy tonight to say, ‘You know what, we’ll build our game, do some things in the third that are good and then worry about our next one next week,’” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Good that they push back and want to win. So, I think that'll help the group collectively as we go into the playoffs because this is a game, if and when, we're in this position, we'll look back and say this is the one that says, ‘Hey, you're never out of it and here's how we got back in it.’”

Cale Makar had a goal and an assist, and Mikko Rantanen and Ross Colton scored for the Avalanche (49-25-7), who have lost four of their past five. Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves.

Colorado pulled to within one point of the Winnipeg Jets for second place in the Central Division.

“We stopped pushing a little bit to continue to try and create offense,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “You get in a game when a team makes a push, you got to continue to push back. That’s what the message was on the bench, while still being smart and deliberate with the puck, which we did. We didn’t push back hard enough. But, at the end of the day, you can’t take dumb penalties in a tight game.”

Barbashev cut it to 3-1 at 2:56 of the third period, putting the puck past Georgiev’s left pad after a wraparound.

Karlsson made it 3-2 at 6:35 with a power-play goal on a wrist shot from the right circle. He then tied it 3-3 at 16:23 on the rush with his 30th goal of the season.

“‘Karl’ is one of the most underrated players in NHL, I think,” Eichel said. “I don't know if he gets enough attention for what he does. When you're his teammate and you get to watch him day in and day out, and night in and night out in the game, he’s just so sound all over the place.”

Colton gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 7:26 of the first period when his shot trickled past Hill.

Makar extended it to 2-0 at 10:34 with a wrist shot over Hill’s glove.

Rantanen pushed it to 3-0 at 12:50 of the second period, backhanding a Josh Manson pass.

“The start of the game was probably the best we started all year, which was nice,” Makar said. “We can’t seem to find ways to put it together, unfortunately. We got a week to solve the problem.”

NOTES: The Golden Knights completed the 26th three-goal comeback win in the NHL this season, which surpassed 1985-86 for the second most in history behind 1989-90 (30). … Vegas earned its third multigoal third-period comeback win in 2023-24, its most in a single season. … Karlsson reached the 30-goal mark for the second time in his career, joining Jonathan Marchessault as the only players to achieve the feat with the Golden Knights.