Eichel scores twice, Golden Knights rally past Flames to push point streak to 4

CALGARY -- Jack Eichel scored twice, and the Vegas Golden Knights rallied for a 4-2 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday.

Tomas Hertl had a goal and an assist, Kaedan Korczak also scored, and Mitch Marner had two assists for the Golden Knights (2-0-2), who won their first game in regulation and extended their season-opening point streak to four games.

“After the first period, it wasn’t looking great,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said of his team trailing 2-0. “We had a little conversation about how we want to play, what’s acceptable, what’s not. That wasn’t us, the first period. We were really loose with the puck. We’re usually a pretty responsible team, so let’s start with that, get back to making them earn their chances and see if we can tilt the ice. It was a grind, but I liked the last 30 minutes or so. I thought that’s what we’re supposed to look like.”

Adin Hill left the game following the first period with a lower-body injury after making eight saves. Akira Schmid played the final two periods and stopped all 19 shots he faced.

“That’s a tough position for [Schmid] to come in. You’re down 2-0, so it’s important and he held us in there until we got our footing under us,” Cassidy said. “He’s played well every time he’s been in there for us.”

Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman scored for the Flames (1-3-0), who have lost three straight. Dustin Wolf made 26 saves.

“You had a 2-0 lead, you’ve got to push down harder on their throat and we pulled back and gave them some life,” Coleman said. “Good teams with good players will make you pay and there’s no reason for it.”

Backlund gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at 7:32 of the first period when he took a pass from MacKenzie Weegar and scored with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Only 18 seconds after Backlund’s goal, Hill fell to the ice when his helmet came off his head after he stopped back-to-back shots by Matt Coronato and Rasmus Andersson. He got back up and finished the period but didn’t return to the bench for the rest of the game.

“I don’t know where Adin will end up right now in terms of he’s obviously got a lower-body injury,” Cassidy said. “I don’t know how serious it’ll be.”

Coleman extended the lead to 2-0 at 12:10. He intercepted a clearing attempt by forward Ivan Barbashev before lifting a shot over Hill’s glove.

Eichel cut it to 2-1 at 10:00 of the second period. Wolf stopped the initial shot, but Eichel backhanded the rebound off the Calgary goalie and into the net.

“Fortunate bounce, the rebound comes right back to me on the first one,” Eichel said. “I’ll take it. Bounces are going to go both ways. It was good to get one for us. Obviously, it got us on the board and I thought we got some momentum from it, and we were able to play from there.”

Korczak then tied it 2-2 at 4:11 of the third period when he snapped a shot from the top of the right circle past Wolf.

Eichel gave Vegas a 3-2 lead at 6:38, scoring his second goal of the game by driving hard to the net and sliding the puck past Wolf.

“I knew we had it a little odd-man rush there, so we had numbers,” said Eichel, who has nine points (four goals, five assists) in a season-opening four-game point streak. “I just saw an opening to the back post and I decided to take it to the net, so hopefully I can try and do that more. It was good to see that one go in.”

Hertl added an empty-net goal at 19:53 for the 4-2 final.

NOTES: The Golden Knights have posted a season-opening point streak of at least four games for the third time in franchise history. They started 11-0-1 in 2023-24 and 4-0-0 in 2020-21. … Mark Stone had an assist to extend his season-opening point streak to four games (six assists). … With his first goal of the season, Backlund surpassed Lanny McDonald (216 goals) for sixth on the Flames’ all-time list. He also tied Gary Suter for the sixth-most points in franchise history (564).