Golden Knights top Rangers on Tuch OT goal to extend point streak to four

NEW YORK -- Alex Tuch scored at 2:11 of overtime to lift the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-3 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Tuch, who was born in Syracuse and grew up in Baldwinsville, New York, said he had around 30-40 friends and family at the game.
"I know what Madison Square Garden is, I know what it means to this city and everything so it's pretty cool not only to get the overtime winner but to score a goal in this building," Tuch said.
WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Rangers highlights]
Reilly Smith, Paul Stastny, William Carrier scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for the Golden Knights (19-14-2), who extended their point streak to four games (3-0-1) and are 10-2-1 in their past 13 games.
Fleury got his 423rd NHL win, tying Tony Esposito for ninth on the all-time list.
"It's very humbling to be amongst those guys for sure," Fleury said. "From start to finish, we played a good game and we deserved that win."
Brady Skjei, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored, and Henrik Lundqvist made 37 saves for the Rangers (14-13-5), who lost their third straight game and eighth in their past 10 (2-5-3). Kevin Hayes had three assists.
"I think the first two periods (outshot 28-17), it's not the way we can play," Lundqvist said. "Not at home in front of our fans. We need to work harder. We can't accept not being ready to fight for one another here; I thought we were not ready."
Skjei gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead 1:13 into the first period converting on a 2-on-1 with Pavel Buchnevich.

Smith scored a power-play goal at 11:40 of the first to tie the game at 1-1. Colin Miller's point shot hit the glass and bounced over the net and Smith put it in.
Stastny scored his first goal of the season at 6:09 of the second period to give Vegas a 2-1 lead. It was his first goal in five games with the Golden Knights; he signed a three-year contract as an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and missed 30 games because of a lower-body injury.
"It was a good bounce-back after what happened against New Jersey (blew two three-goal leads in 5-4 overtime loss on Friday to the New Jersey Devils)," Stastny said. "We stuck with it and found a way to get two points."

Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said, "He played real well tonight. It was good for him to get that first goal for us. ... Good solid effort for 60-something minutes."
Zibanejad tied the game at 2-2 with a one-timer on the power-play at 12:10 of the second.
Carrier scored 52 seconds later to give Vegas a 3-2 lead at 13:12.
"There's no question down by one going into the third was a good situation for us the way we played in the first two periods," Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said. "At least we took advantage of the third period, we were close and snuck away with one (point)."
Lundqvist stopped all 12 shots he faced in the third period, and Kreider scored at 3:29 to tie the game at 3-3.
"Hank played a great game over there," Tuch said. "He made a lot of key saves for them, a lot of big saves, and we were just lucky to come away with the second point tonight."

They said it

"Before the game starts, we've got two of the best goalies in the NHL and they've done that for 15 years or so, both of them, so you knew it was going to be a good goaltending matchup." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant
"We can't come out and play hockey like that. If you don't want to be involved in contact, you should go do something else. You can't hide in this game and we hid for two periods." -- Rangers coach David Quinn

Need to know

Fleury is 423-239-72 with two ties in 768 regular-season games. ... Rangers forward Jesper Fast did not play and will be out 2-4 weeks because of an upper-body injury. ... Boo Nieves played his first game of the season with New York and had one shot on goal in 10:14 of ice time. ... Rangers defenseman Adam McQuaid played for the first time since Oct. 25 after missing the past 21 games with an upper-body injury. He was plus-2 and had four hits and three blocked shots ... Vegas forward Max Pacioretty returned to the lineup after missing one game with an undisclosed injury and had an assist on Stastny's goal.

What's next

Golden Knights: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
Rangers: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, PRIME, NHL.TV)