Golden Knights score three in third to defeat Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Rookie goalie Maxime Lagace got help from his Vegas Golden Knights teammates to bounce back from a lopsided loss with a 5-2 win against Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Thursday.
Lagace made 19 saves two days after giving up seven goals on 29 shots in an 8-2 defeat to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.

Vegas (11-6-1) held Vancouver to five shots on goal in the third period, when Erik Haula, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith scored.
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"It's part of my job to come back after a performance where you probably wanted to have two or three goals back," said Lagace, who started the season as the Golden Knights' fourth-string goalie before injuries to Marc-Andre Fleury, Malcolm Subban and Oscar Dansk led to him assuming the starting role. "The guys played awesome in front of me, kept the work pretty limited in the second and third. That's a team win."
Lagace was removed in the third period of the loss to Edmonton with lower-body soreness, but he came back strong Thursday. He stopped Brandon Sutter on a shorthanded breakaway 4:42 into the second period and made a good left-pad stop on a hard Brock Boeser shot with 6:57 left in the third and Vegas leading 3-2.
"I'm smiling every day I'm up here," Lagace said. "To win, it's candy for me."
Haula, who also had an assist, scored the go-ahead goal 6:27 into the third period. James Neal stole the puck from defenseman Erik Gudbranson behind the Vancouver net and fed it out front to David Perron, who made a backhand pass through the crease to Haula.
Haula has four goals and four assists in his past six games but was more focused on bearing down defensively after the loss in Edmonton.
"We had to," Haula said. "You let up eight goals, it's not what you want. You can't pin that on the goalie. Our goalies have been great, whoever's in the net. Give a lot of props to Max."

Perron and William Karlsson scored in the first period for the Golden Knights, who started the season 8-1-0 but are 3-5-1 in their past nine games.
Marchessault put Vegas up 4-2 with 3:05 remaining after a turnover in the slot gave him a breakaway, and Smith scored into an empty net 1:03 later to make it 5-2.
"It's a big game for us," said Perron, who also had an assist and now has two goals and seven assists during a six-game point streak. "For us It was a big two points and we can keep building on our season, we don't want to let it slip away too much."
Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat scored, and Jacob Markstrom made 25 saves for the Canucks (9-8-2), who have lost three of their past four games.

"We weren't great the whole game, to be honest," coach Travis Green said. "It's two teams that play a pretty similar style, and we looked a step behind, if I am being honest. They looked a little quicker than us and I thought our team looked a little tired."
Perron scored 3:22 into the first period, and Karlsson made it 2-0 at 13:00.
"Our starts aren't good enough," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. "We battled back and played well the rest of the time until the third period, then we made a couple of mistakes."

Goal of the game

Haula's goal 6:27 into the third period.

Save of the game

Lagace's save on Boeser with 6:57 left in the third.

Highlight of the game

Perron's goal at 3:22 of the first period.

They said it

"He battled and competed hard tonight, so really proud of him. He's got some pride and the other night wasn't fun and he battled back." -- Golden Knights coach Gerrard Gallant on goalie Maxime Lagace
"I'm sick and tired of losing. We have to string a couple together." -- Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom, who has lost three straight starts

Need to know

Haula, Perron, Karlsson and Marchessault each had a goal and an assist. … Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore played after he was a healthy scratch the previous three games. He was plus-1 with three shots on goal in 21:04 of ice time. … Vancouver had one shot on two power-play opportunities against Vegas, which was 0-for-3 on the penalty kill against the Oilers.

What's next

Golden Knights: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; ATTSN-RM, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Canucks: Host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, FS-MW, NHL.TV)