The Vegas Golden Knights scored three goals in the third period on the way to a 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night.
“They skated us into the ground a little bit and took advantage,” head coach Ken Hitchcock said after the game. “We looked tired in the third period and they amped it up to another level.”
LISTEN BELOW: Ken Hitchcock
The Golden Knights came out flying and had the Oilers hemmed in early. Mark Stone opened the scoring at the 5:40 mark. The Oilers came back with a power play strike from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. With 54.9 seconds to go in the session, Cody Eakin fired a shot over Mikko Koskinen’s glove to make it 2-1 Vegas.
Leon Draisaitl sniped his 43rd of the season 22 seconds into the second period, but it wasn’t tied for long. Less than two minutes later, Jonathan Marchessault fired one top shelf to put Vegas ahead 3-2.
Marchessault struck again 40 seconds into the third. Kris Russell scored on the Oilers’ first shot of the period at 5:52, as his long slap shot beat Malcolm Subban. It was Russell’s first goal since Jan. 12.
With 10:15 to go, Brayden McNabb’s point shot leaked through Koskinen and trickled over the goal line. The Oilers challenged for goalie interference as Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was tangled up with Koskinen and Russell as the puck went in. After review, the goal stood. Alex Tuch added one more late in the third.
“It’s a learning experience where you’ve got to keep pushing through; keep finding ways to get through their speed by chipping pucks and skating onto it, and forechecking the puck back,” Sam Gagner said. “And I thought we did a really good job of that for certain parts of that game, and we got rewarded for it, but just not enough of it.”
LISTEN BELOW: Sam Gagner
The Oilers, 32-33-7, will visit St. Louis on Tuesday.