3 takeaways: Power play delivers late in Knights’ 5th straight victory

It wasn’t the prettiest win. Certainly not the cleanest.

The Golden Knights will take two points any way they can this time of year.

Left wing Victor Olofsson scored twice, and right wing Pavel Dorofeyev scored a go-ahead power-play goal with 3:10 remaining Friday to help the Knights rally for a 5-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center.

Olofsson ended a 20-game drought with his first goals since Jan. 23. He scored his second of the game 2:06 into the third period to tie it 3-3.

“It was definitely nice to get a couple here,” Olofsson said. “Definitely helps the confidence and gives me a good boost going forward.”

The 29-year-old Olofsson found himself a victim of the numbers game when center William Karlsson returned following a 20-game absence due to a lower-body injury. Olofsson was scratched two games before going back in Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.

Line shuffling after center Tomas Hertl’s upper-body injury Sunday pushed Olofsson back into the lineup. He rewarded the team with his third multigoal game of the season.

“He’s had a tough go lately, but he was rewarded tonight,” coach Bruce Cassidy said.

The Knights’ top-ranked power play converted in the final minutes when Dorofeyev powered a one-timer off a feed from defenseman Noah Hanifin to take a 4-3 lead.

Center Brett Howden added an empty-net goal for the final tally in the Knights’ fifth straight victory.

Captain Mark Stone scored, and center William Karlsson had three assists for the Knights (44-20-8), who will play the second of back-to-back games Saturday against the Nashville Predators.

Goaltender Adin Hill made 18 saves and improved to 9-1-1 in his last 11 starts.

But the Knights had to withstand a flurry from Chicago (21-43-9) by way of the stick of left wing Ryan Donato.

Donato, who is having a career year offensively, recorded the first hat trick of his career to give him 28 goals this season. Two goals came in a 15-second span in the second period to put Chicago ahead 3-2 at 16:29.

“I think we were just committed to playing a little harder,” Cassidy said.

Stone and Olofsson scored in a 53-second span earlier in the frame for a 2-1 Knights lead at 7:34.

All that matters for the Knights is they added two points to their Pacific Division cushion. Their lead over the Los Angeles Kings is seven points — the Kings have a game in hand — and nine points over the Edmonton Oilers.

They’re inching closer to a fourth division title in eight years. It took an ugly win to get there, but a win nonetheless.

“It kind of shows what kind of group we are,” Olofsson said. “We didn’t have our best tonight, but we’re never out of games. We had to dig in deep tonight to find our game.”

Three takeaways from the win:

1. Defensive breakdowns

Goalies aren’t normally the heroes in games that combine for eight goals on 43 shots.

But Hill made a number of key saves, especially on breakaways, to keep the Knights in it.

Hill saw five breakaways. The only one he didn’t stop was Donato’s first goal at 16:15 of the first period. Hill made the save on Donato’s initial attempt, but couldn’t keep the rebound out.

“Guys were behind us a lot tonight,” Cassidy said. “The breakaways, that’s not us, usually. We’re usually more on our toes.”

Hill made a breakaway stop on right wing Ilya Mikheyev moments before Stone tied it 1-1 at 6:41.

That wasn’t even Hill’s best action on Mikheyev that period.

“He was incredible tonight,” Hanifin said.

2. Chicago struggles

The Knights took the season series (2-1-0) over the Blackhawks for the sixth time in seven seasons.

Chicago is fluttering close to the bottom of the league standings but gave the Knights some of their toughest games this season.

The Blackhawks won the first meeting 5-3 on Jan. 18 after building a 3-0 lead in the first. The Knights answered with a 7-5 win Feb. 27 where they led 5-1 after the first period and almost gave it away.

Donato’s 15-second burst had to create a sense of doubt, but the Knights completed their eighth third-period comeback this season, tied for the most in the league.

“I didn’t think we were at our best in terms of awareness,” Cassidy said. “Credit to Chicago. They got speed. They got guys that can separate.”

3. Pietrangelo out

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury and has been ruled out for Saturday’s game at Nashville.

Cassidy said he doesn’t anticipate Pietrangelo’s injury to be long term. Kaedan Korczak had two shots in 18:56 of ice time in his second straight game in the lineup.

Cassidy won’t have a definitive update on Hertl or Pietrangelo until the team returns from the trip.

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