3 takeaways from Golden Knights’ win: Eichel caps comeback in OT

The last four games haven’t been the prettiest for the Golden Knights. They’ve still found ways to win.

Sunday might have been the best way to describe that, with center Jack Eichel scoring with eight seconds remaining in overtime and the Knights rallying for their fourth straight win, 3-2 over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

The Knights trailed 2-1 after two periods thanks to a dominant middle frame from the Rangers. New York outshot the Knights 17-6 and found the back of the net twice.

“You take wins however you can get them in this league,” Eichel said. “They’re hard to win. It was a full team effort tonight.”

But the Knights (14-6-8) answered with a commanding third of their own and got rewarded.

Center Tomas Hertl tied it with 51.3 seconds left in regulation with goaltender Carter Hart sent to the bench for the extra attacker.

“We know we’re never out of a game, which is comforting, for sure,” defenseman Noah Hanifin said.

Rather than a customary six-on-five, the Knights got a five-on-four with less than two minutes left after coincidental roughing penalties called on center Brett Howden and Rangers defenseman Will Borgen.

The Knights used their five-forward power play lineup for Hertl to score his team-leading 13th goal.

“I think earlier in the period, I had a couple of good looks,” Hertl said. “The ice was slow and bouncy. … Just shoot it and put the puck on net. Definitely a big goal for us.”

Because there was still time remaining on the roughing penalties, both teams opened overtime at four-on-four. The first stoppage in overtime didn’t occur until 16 seconds remained to bring it to three-on-three.

That’s when Eichel and defenseman Shea Theodore called their own number.

Howden won the defensive-zone draw and Eichel sprinted down the ice. Theodore lobbed the puck to the streaking Eichel, who got behind Rangers defenseman Matthew Robertson and beat goalie Jonathan Quick in close.

Howden also scored, and goaltender Hart made 21 saves to improve to 2-0 with the Knights, who improved to 2-0 on their five-game road trip.

The Knights tied a season high with their fourth straight win. Three of them have been decided by one goal and two of them needed extra time to decide it.

But they’ve found ways to win, which were hard to come by not too long ago.

“We stuck with it,” Eichel said. “It took a full 65 minutes for a win, but sometimes that’s what it takes. Tons of credit to the group.”

Here are three takeaways from the win:

1. Dominant first period

The Knights couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game.

Their relentless forecheck was on display from the first shift, when Howden scored 36 seconds into the game to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

New York struggled to generate anything in the offensive zone. The Knights outshot them 8-3 and had a 26-10 edge in shot attempts.

The Knights had their chances to extend the lead. Howden hit a post near the midway point of the period, and defenseman Kaedan Korczak hit iron with 2:13 remaining.

Those posts came back to haunt them.

2. Keeping them in it

For as dominant as the Knights were in the opening 20 minutes, the Rangers took it to another level in the second.

New York (15-12-4), playing on the second night of a back-to-back after losing 3-2 in overtime to Colorado on Saturday, had a 26-13 edge on shot attempts and made it tough for the Knights to get through the neutral zone.

Rangers center Mika Zibanejad, who shot it through the crease earlier in the shift, poked home a rebound at 9:08 to tie it 1-1. Less than four minutes later, right wing Alexis Lafreniere fired a laser from the right circle that zipped under the crossbar for the lead.

“You come in after the first period and you feel like you’re in good shape, your game’s coming,” Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “And you get punched in the face watching the second period, thinking you’re back to starting over again.”

Quick, the former Knights goalie who was part of the 2023 Stanley Cup team, did his part to keep the Rangers in it after the first.

Hart did the same in the second with 15 saves.

“Carter, he gave us a chance after the second period,” Cassidy said.

The ice tilted back to the Knights’ favor in the third with a 14-3 edge on shots and a dominant 31-5 advantage in shot attempts.

“I think in the third period, we played really well. We got back to our game,” Hanifin said. “The second, obviously, wasn’t us.”

3. Scalding Stone

Captain Mark Stone has played 12 games. He has a point in all of them.

Stone recorded two assists to extend his personal point streak to a dozen. The league doesn’t recognize it as a point streak because Stone missed 16 games with a wrist injury.

Stone became the fifth Knights player to hit the 20-point mark this season.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.