Smith, Golden Knights top Maple Leafs in OT for eighth straight victory

TORONTO --Reilly Smith scored twice, including 23 seconds into overtime, and the Vegas Golden Knights extended their winning streak to eight games with a 4-3 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

Smith won it on a breakaway, backhanding a shot past Erik Kallgren's glove after he took a pass from Shea Theodore at the blue line to send him in alone.
"We're enjoying every minute of it," Smith said. "It's tough to go on the road for a really long time, but I think we're doing a good job being with each other, having fun and experiencing this tough part of the season all together. But we're rolling with the punches and finding ways to win games."

Jack Eichel scored to extend his point streak to six games, William Karlsson had two assists and Logan Thompson made 28 saves for the Golden Knights (12-2-0), who will conclude a five-game road trip Thursday at the Buffalo Sabres.
"We're resilient for sure, we're learning how to win hockey games when we're not at our best and tonight is a good example of that," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We had some pockets of the game where we need to be better, but we stayed in most games this year and found a way to win a lot of them to be honest with you.
"Tonight was one of those ones where someone was going to have to make a play to pick us up, and it happened to be Karlsson and Reilly."
Timothy Liljegren scored twice, and Mitchell Marner had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs (7-4-3), who had won three in a row. Kallgren made 16 saves.
"Obviously, [we] didn't really do what we wanted to in the first or the start of that second period, but we did a better job throughout the game," Marner said. "We gave this team too many opportunities. They're going to capitalize eventually, and Kallgren did a great job just keeping us in that game as long as he could."
Liljegren put Toronto up 3-2 at 16:56 of the second period when he took a pass from Marner and one-timed a shot from the left face-off dot.
Smith tied it 3-3 at 11:43 of the third period with a short-handed goal on a 2-on-1 with Karlsson.
"It seemed like we were getting a lot of good chances [throughout the game]," Smith said. "Maybe the volume wasn't there, but I think all night we had like five or six breakaways and were kind of just looking for holes. On the power play, we kind of caught them out when they were tired at the end of it. Karlsson was able to do a great job jumping into the play, beat his guy and fortunate to cap that one off and tie the game. [It] makes a huge difference when you can swing that on a penalty kill."
Eichel put Vegas up 2-1 at 17:55 of the first period. He stole the puck from Liljegren in the offensive zone before Chandler Stephenson collected it and found Mark Stone, who then passed across the goal crease to Eichel for a tap-in.

The Maple Leafs tied it 2-2 at 13:50 of the second period when Marner stole the puck along the boards, skated into the slot and shot past Thompson's glove.
Nicolas Roy gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead 45 seconds into the first when he got to a loose puck in the crease after Kallgren made the initial save on a breakaway by William Carrier.
"I think Kallgren played unreal tonight," Liljegren said. "He made a lot of good saves. Even though we let in four, we gave up way too many chances against. I think he played a great game.
"They play with a lot of speed and are good in transition. Our structure just wasn't good enough today for Vegas. We gave up way too much."

Liljegren tied it 1-1 at 5:05 when he one-timed a pass from David Kampf, who was on the goal line, at the right dot. It was Liljegren's first goal of the season in his third game.
Toronto earned five of six points in three games against the Boston Bruins, Carolina Hurricanes and Golden Knights. The Maple Leafs are 3-0-1 in their past four following a 1-2-2 road trip.
"You're happy about it for sure, but we expect ourselves to be a great team and we're not settling for anything else," Marner said. "We expect to try and be getting those points and fighting for those points. We definitely did a great job [over the past stretch]. A little disappointed tonight giving up that third one of the power play."
NOTES: Vegas' winning streak is the longest in the NHL this season. It's the fourth time in their history the Golden Knights have won eight games in a row. ... Marner extended his point streak to seven games (two goals, nine assists).