Golden Knights end road trip with 5-2 win over Canucks

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — For a period of about 24 hours, speculation ran wild about who would be in goal for the Golden Knights on Thursday.

— Was Malcolm Subban ready to come off the injured-reserve list?

— Would 19-year-old Dylan Ferguson be forced to make an emergency start two days after his NHL debut?

Maxime Lagace made sure the answer to both questions was a resounding no.

Lagace made his eighth straight start and had 19 saves to help the Knights earn a 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks before an announced crowd of 18,119 at Rogers Arena.

“It’s important to bounce back after a performance where it didn’t go the way I wanted, but I just needed to refocus and bring it back to basics,” Lagace said. “The boys played an awesome game tonight, kept the work limited for me.”

Erik Haula put home the go-ahead goal 6:27 into the third period, and Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith added late goals for the Knights (11-6-1, 23 points).

David Perron and William Karlsson notched first-period goals as the Knights finished off their two-game road trip to western Canada on a high note, winning for the second time in their past eight road games (2-5-1).

“We came in here and wasn’t really happy with the last half of the second (period),” Karlsson said. “It was just going back to what we were doing before..”

Lagace was pulled midway through the third period Tuesday at Edmonton after allowing seven goals on 29 shots in an 8-2 loss, and appeared to be shaken up after the Oilers’ fifth goal early in the third.

Afterward, Knights coach Gerard Gallant said Lagace “cramped up” and was replaced by Ferguson for the final 9:14.

Subban practiced Wednesday for the first time since he was placed on IR on Oct. 22 with a lower-body injury leading to conjecture he could return. But he was not activated for the game and remains day-to-day, according to Gallant.

Lagace didn’t face many high-quality chances and got help from Jonathan Marchessault in the first period when he deflected Brock Boeser’s shot that was ticketed for a wide-open net.

Lagace’s best save came early in the second period when he stopped Brandon Sutter on a breakaway to keep the Knights up 2-0.

“He made some key saves,” Gallant said. “He battled and competed hard tonight, so real proud of him. He’s got some pride, and the other night wasn’t fun and he battled back tonight.”

Haula finished with a goal and an assist to reach the 100-point mark for his career (48 goals, 52 assists). Haula was stationed at the right post and took a feed from Perron before firing into the open net to put the Knights up 3-2.

“I think (Nate Schmidt) made a great play keeping the puck alive, and (James Neal), big guy, won a battle down low and got it to (Perron),” Haula said. “He made a great play.”

Perron, who has points in six straight games and leads the Knights with 17 points, opened the scoring 3:22 into the game. He dragged the puck around a Canucks defenseman and ripped a shot past Jacob Markstrom.

Karlsson made it 2-0 with seven minutes left in the first. It was his seventh goal, surpassing last season’s total with Columbus.

“After you get a loss like (Tuesday), you always got to bounce back,” Karlsson said. “That was really good. Just forget about it and try to get the next one. I think we responded well.”

Three takeaways

1. In the kisser. Nate Schmidt took a puck to the mouth with 15:38 left in the second period and was taken to the Golden Knights locker room. He returned to the game a little more than nine minutes later and played a regular shift the rest of the way.

2. Change it up. The Knights made several switches to their forward lines and defense pairs. Brendan Leipsic went to the third line with Cody Eakin and Alex Tuch, dropping Oscar Lindberg to the fourth line. On the blue line, Shea Theodore partnered Deryk Engelland, and Schmidt teamed with Brayden McNabb.

3. Stoppage in play. The teams went to their locker rooms with 59.7 seconds left in the second period when a female fan at Rogers Arena was injured by a puck that flew into the stands. After the ice was resurfaced, the remainder of the second period was completed and the teams switched ends.

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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.