Golden Knights rout Oilers 5-1, stay unbeaten under Tortorella

“We’re fired up,” Eichel said. “He’s been so good for us all year and just plays the game so hard and does so many little things for us. So, when guys like that get one, you’re pretty juiced.”

The play fit the broader picture too. Vegas is not leaning only on stars right now. Under Tortorella, the scoring has spread, and so has the trust.

“I like some of the little things we did,” Tortorella said. “We were just trying to play north, trying to gain zones. You play 140 feet against that team, you turn pucks over against that team, you’re in trouble.”

That was one of the cleanest parts of the performance. Vegas respected Edmonton’s speed without backing off its own game.

Edmonton gets a window, Vegas slams it shut

The only wobble came late in the second.

Bouchard scored with 34 seconds left in the period after Vegas failed to clear the zone, and Rogers Place finally had life. For a moment, the game looked like it might turn into the kind of wild finish Edmonton often creates at home.

Instead, the Golden Knights crushed that thought early in the third.

With Vegas killing a penalty, Hart denied McDavid and kept the lead intact. Soon after, the Knights finished the kill, pushed back up ice and restored the three-goal lead at 4:04 when Mark Stone got inside position and deflected Ivan Barbashev’s pass past Ingram.

That sequence was the game.

Edmonton had a chance to climb back in. Vegas killed it off and then scored.

“That’s a big play of the game,” Tortorella said. “We kill that penalty off and then go score the goal.”

From there, Vegas controlled the rest of it. The Oilers kept firing, but Hart stayed square and calm. Meanwhile, the Golden Knights kept rolling pucks north instead of feeding Edmonton transition chances.

A road win with weight

Rasmus Andersson closed the scoring with a power-play goal at 16:13 of the third, ripping home his 16th of the season after Barbashev and Noah Hanifin worked the puck across the top. By then, the result was no longer in doubt. The only thing left was the meaning.

This was Vegas’ first win against Edmonton in four meetings this season. It came on the road, against the hottest team in the division, in the first game of a trip that could decide the standings.

More important, it looked like a team getting sharper, not just luckier.

“I think we’re kind of buying into the mindset of just playing fast hockey,” Eichel said. “Checking, moving our feet and just playing teams really tight and aggressively.”

Hart, playing in his hometown, gave Vegas the base it needed. He finished with 31 saves and looked settled from the start, especially on the penalty kill and in the first 20 minutes when Edmonton had its best push.

“He just looked solid,” Tortorella said. “He looked big to me.”

That was the simplest way to describe the whole night. Vegas looked big enough to handle Edmonton’s speed, survive the push and make this division race feel very live again.

Pacific pressure

The standings shifted with it.

Vegas moved to 86 points, one behind Edmonton and Anaheim at 87. Meanwhile, the Oilers lost after winning five straight, and the Ducks have now dropped five in a row. What looked crowded a week ago now looks volatile again, and the Golden Knights are right in the middle of it.

More important, they look like a team with a clear idea of how it wants to play.

Three games into the Tortorella stretch, the message has not changed: play fast, play north, stay aggressive. Against Vancouver and Calgary, that helped restart the group. Now, against Edmonton, it held up under real pressure.

That is why this win mattered more than the score. The Golden Knights did not just beat a rival Saturday night. They played the kind of road game that can move a season.

Up next

Five games remain, and the Golden Knights have pushed themselves right into the middle of the Pacific race.

Next, Vegas continues its road swing Tuesday against the Canucks at Rogers Arena, with puck drop set for 7 p.m. Pacific. Then, the trip moves to Seattle on Thursday before wrapping up Saturday in Colorado.

After that, the Golden Knights return to T-Mobile Arena for their final two regular-season games. They host the Jets on April 13 and then close the schedule against the Kraken on April 15.