Hill makes 33 saves, Golden Knights edge Canucks

LAS VEGAS -- Brandon Saad scored the go-ahead goal 18 seconds into the third period, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Ivan Barbashev and Tomas Hertl also scored, while Adin Hill made 33 saves for the Golden Knights (34-17-6), who have won three in a row.

Saad was playing his fifth game for the Golden Knights after he signed with Vegas for the remainder of the season on Jan. 31.

“It was a blast,” Saad said. “Any time you win hockey games and score goals and contribute, you're going to feel good about yourself. So, I’m just taking a day at a time. The guys have been great and welcoming so far, and it's been fun.”

Jake DeBrusk scored, and Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves for the Canucks (26-19-11), who had won three in a row before the 4 Nations Face-off break.

“There's some good and bad. There's moments that we should have executed on. Had a couple of goals there I wish weren’t taken back, but it's the right calls,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Overall, the execution was good in some parts, and sometimes it wasn't. We had them when they had 6-on-5. They were tired, and we didn’t make some smart plays. Shot the puck over the net. We hurried up some of our shots. I don't know if that's rust over the two weeks.

“There’s moments there. We just didn't come through.”

DeBrusk gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 6:22 of the second period. He tapped into an open net off a Kiefer Sherwood pass from below the goal line.

“It might have deflected maybe off one of them,” DeBrusk said. “It slowed it down a little bit, actually, which I guess kind of helped.”

Barbashev tied the game 1-1 at 11:02. Lankinen made the initial save on Victor Olofsson’s tip-in attempt, but the rebound found Barbashev, who put it into the open net.

After Saad gave Vegas the 2-1 lead, Vancouver's Nils Hoglander appeared to tie the game at 5:17 of the third period before the goal was taken off the board when it was ruled that Teddy Blueger interfered with Hill.

“Live, I'm not 100 percent sure [if it's goalie interference] just because I don't know if he runs into me and falls down and that. But I don't know if my D-man pushed him into me or not because I'm watching the puck on the play,” Hill said. “Once I saw the replay, the first time, I was pretty confident that it wasn't going to count.”

Hertl added the empty-net goal at 19:29 for the 3-1 final.

“I didn't know what to expect, to be honest,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You don't know how the players are going to react, especially if I wasn't here for the practices for the most part. I thought I liked our morning skate a lot. I thought the guys had a good skate. It showed in our start and our second period.”

NOTES: DeBrusk became the third Canucks player in the past decade to reach the 20-goal mark after playing for a different club his previous season. The others: J.T. Miller (27 in 2019-20) and Radim Vrbata (31 in 2014-15). The goal was also his 300th career NHL point. … Canucks forward Elias Pettersson played after being a game-time decision. He was minus-1 in 15:59 of ice time and had one shot on goal.