Golden Knights rally with 3 late goals to stun Flames, 4-2

CALGARY, Alberta — Another win, another milestone for the Golden Knights.

And this was a big one.

Trailing 2-1 with under two minutes to play Tuesday against the Calgary Flames, the Knights scored three times in a 53-second span to rally for a 4-2 victory in front of 19,289 at the Scotiabank Saddledome for the franchise’s 33rd victory. The win tied the Knights with the 1993-94 Florida Panthers and 1993-94 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for most wins by an expansion team in their inaugural season. They are now 33-12-4 and lead the Pacific Division with 70 points.

“It’s great for the franchise, but there’s a lot of hockey left to play,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “The guys kept working and we got a little lucky. But it’s a big two points and a great way to start the road trip.”

Erik Haula, Jonathan Marchessault and David Perron all scored late as the Knights returned from the NHL All-Star break and began their long six-game road trip with an amazing comeback.

“It’s kind of a weird feeling,” said Haula, whose goal with 1:46 to play tied the game 2-2. The goal came after Flames forward Michael Frolik sent the puck toward his own goal and netminder Mike Smith kicked it on to Haula’s stick. He buried it for his 18th goal.

“I’m still amazed at what happened,” Haula said. “Somehow the puck ended up on my stick, so I guess I got a little lucky there.”

Haula was still receiving congratulations on the bench when the Knights took control on the ensuing faceoff. Marchessault got ahead of the defense and lifted one over Smith’s shoulder 10 seconds after Haula had tied it to give the Knights a 3-2 lead.

“I got the puck and just went to the goal and got a good shot off,” said Marchessault, whose 18th goal came on a feed from William Karlsson.

David Perron then scored an empty-net goal with 53 seconds left to seal the win as the Knights improved to 12-1-1 in division play.

“It just goes to show you can’t quit on a game. You’ve got to keep playing,” said defenseman Nate Schmidt. “We didn’t get our speed going, and we had a tough time moving up the ice. They did a good job of not letting us use our speed.”

The Knights, who are 22-1 when scoring first, took a 1-0 first-period lead on Reilly Smith’s power-play goal as he deflected Marchessault’s wrist shot from inside the Calgary blue line. It was Smith’s 13th goal.

But the Flames tied it at 6:02 of the second period as Sam Bennett’s wrister from inside the left faceoff circle got past Marc-Andre Fleury. Calgary took the lead with 1:17 remaining in the second as Matthew Tkachuk pounced on a loose puck after Fleury stopped two previous attempts and put it past him on a wraparound.

Fleury made 31 saves and said he was glad to see his teammates bail him out for a change.

“We kept playing our game and we stuck with it and got two big goals in the end,” said Fleury. “I was playing the passer on their first goal and the other one (Tkachuk) got past me. But it was a good win and a good two points.”

The Knights will look to own the record for victories by an expansion team Thursday at Winnipeg against the Jets. But Schmidt said it’s about keeping the momentum going as teams make a strong push to catch the first-place Knights and secure their own spot in the postseason.

“It’s great,” Schmidt said of the milestone. “Hopefully, there’s a lot more wins.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow

@stevecarprj on Twitter.