Golden Knights edge Canucks, pull into tie for Pacific lead

VANCOUVER -- Cole Smith scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.

Brayden McNabb also scored and Carter Hart made 10 saves for the Golden Knights (36-26-16), who have won four straight games since John Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy as coach on March 29, and are 4-0-2 in their past six.  

Vegas moved into a tie with the Edmonton Oilers atop the Pacific Division, although Edmonton holds the tiebreaker with two more regulation wins.

“On a night where it was just a grind, we just stayed with it and we got a goal by a defenseman, we get a goal by Cole Smith, which I think is a really good sign for our team, not leaning on the top guys all the time,” Tortorella said. “Just stayed with it and we checked forward most of the night, certainly wasn't pretty. Find a way to lead, we found a way to win.”

The Golden Knights outshot Vancouver 28-11 and controlled most of the play.

“We're doing a really good job of going north and I think when you do that, you stay out of your end, you don't play defense, you don't mess around with the neutral zone, and then you end up playing more offense,” said fourth-line center Nic Dowd, who assisted on Smith’s winning goal. “And then, in my opinion, our (defensemen) are doing a great job of allowing our forwards to play offense by pinching, keeping pucks in, making us go north. I think it starts in our back end.”

Max Sasson scored and Nikita Tolopilo made 26 saves for the last-place Canucks (22-47-8), who have one win in their past 10 games (1-9-0).

“Without ‘Tolo’ I don't know how close it would have been,” Sasson said. “I thought everyone, including myself, can probably give a better effort in front of our home fans. Only a couple games left and only getting 10 shots or whatever, it's not good enough.”

Vegas didn’t give up a shot for the first 14:30, outshooting the Canucks 10-2 in the first period, but Tolopilo made tough saves on a Mark Stone power-play redirection from the top of the crease at 10:24 and stopped Brandon Saad from point blank range at 13:50 to keep it scoreless.

Tolopilo stopped Colton Sissons on a breakaway early in the second period and Mitch Marner from the low slot at 4:55, allowing Sasson to put the Canucks ahead 1-0 at 12:50 with a rush wrist shot from inside the top of the right circle far side past Hart’s blocker. 

McNabb tied it 1-1 at 15:46 with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle into traffic that went in high blocker side on Tolopilo after a flash screen from Tomas Hertl.

“I was just trying to get it on net,” McNabb said. “’Tommy’ kind of did all the work in front to let him not see it, so he should get most of the credit.”

Hart kept it tied with an extended right pad robbery of Elias Pettersson on a rebound atop the crease after a 3-on-2 rush shot by Drew O'Connor with 23 seconds left in the period.

“Not a busy game, but probably one of the harder games he's played in as an NHL player,” Dowd said. “He didn't see a lot of work, and then all of a sudden he sees action with like 10 seconds left and he makes a massive save, because that would have been a tough one to eat.”

Tolopilo answered with a right pad save on Pavel Dorofeyev alone atop the crease at 4:20 of the third period but Smith put Vegas ahead 2-1 at 12:13 with a shot from the top of the right circle that hit a defender’s stick at the release and went in under Tolopilo’s pad. 

The play started with Smith, whose only other goal in 17 games since being acquired in a March 3 trade from the Nashville Predators was into an empty net, forcing Canucks forward Liam Ohgren into a turnover coming out of his end. Dowd, who has four points (one goal, three assists) in 16 games since being acquired in a March 5 trade from the Washington Capitals, won a battle along the boards to get the puck back to Smith for the shot.

“Doing the hard things, right?” Dowd said. “It's a simple play. He turns a puck over, we put their ‘D’ in a tough spot, kind of in between a little bit, and then ‘Smitty’ gets rewarded by jumping the hole and shooting the puck and scoring a goal. It's nothing that doesn't happen a ton of times a game, but you keep doing it over and over and over, you're going to get your chances, and it's up to you to capitalize.” 

Vancouver didn’t get its first shot of the third period until 14:01 and finished with 11 shots, a new season low, including just two on a 6-on-4 advantage for the final 1:41 after pulling Tolopilo following a Vegas penalty.

“We didn't give them much. Their goaltender played really well, but it's just one of those games that it can get away from you, and that's what I like about our team, they stayed with it,” Tortorella said.

NOTES: Saad assisted on McNabb’s goal and finished plus-1 with three shots on six shot attempts in 13:25 playing his first game after 13 as a healthy scratch. … The Golden Knights have won seven in a row against the Canucks dating back to Dec. 19, 2024, their second-longest active streak versus one opponent. … It was the second fewest shots in a game in team history for Vancouver, who only had eight shots in a 2-1 loss against the New Jersey Devils on Dec. 18, 1996.