Jonathan Marchessault scored what proved to be the winning goal on a breakaway in the second period, and Malcolm Subban finished with 18 saves as the Vegas Golden Knights ended a team-record, five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night in Las Vegas.
Cody Eakin and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored goals for Vegas, which already had clinched third place in the Pacific Division and a first-round Stanley Cup playoff matchup with the San Jose Sharks. Subban, playing in his ninth consecutive game, improved to 14-2-1 all-time at T-Mobile Arena.
Edmonton's Connor McDavid tied his career high with his 41st goal. The Oilers were officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoff race during the game when the Colorado Avalanche picked up a point in a 3-2 shootout loss at St. Louis.
Mikko Koskinen finished with 28 saves for the Oilers, who took their sixth loss in the past eight games.
Eakin gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead late in the first period with his 22nd goal of the season. He beat Koskinen on his blocker side with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
Marchessault made it 2-0 just 51 seconds into the second period. He poked the puck away from Leon Draisaitl near the blue line in his own zone for a breakaway and then buried a backhand shot through Koskinen's pads for his 25th of the season.
McDavid cut the deficit to 2-1 a little over three minutes later when he fired a wrist shot from the middle of the right circle through Subban's pads. It was the 115th point of the season for McDavid which ranks second to Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov (122) in the league scoring race.
Edmonton, which managed just 10 shots on goal over the final two periods combined, pulled Koskinen for an extra attacker with 1:05 left and then had a 6-on-4 advantage for the final 43.9 seconds when Tomas Nosek picked up an interference penalty for dragging down McDavid.
The Oilers nearly tied it when Sam Gagner's deflection hit the left post. Bellemare then sealed the win with an empty-netter with 6.6 seconds left.
--Field Level Media
Edmonton | Vegas | |
Connor McDavid 1 | Points | Pierre-Edouard Bellemare 1 |
Connor McDavid 1 | Goals | Pierre-Edouard Bellemare 1 |
Leon Draisaitl 1 | Assists | William Karlsson 1 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Pierre-Edouard Bellemare 1 |
Mikko Koskinen .933 | Save Percentage | Malcolm Subban .947 |
Mikko Koskinen 28 | Saves | Malcolm Subban 18 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Edmonton | 19 | 1 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 4 | 25 |
Vegas | 31 | 3 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 4 | 29 |