Golden Knights shootout win caps three-goal rally

The Vegas Golden Knights were down three goals before Thursday night’s game was nine minutes old. By the end, they had turned an ugly start into one of their strongest responses of the young season.

Vegas erased a 3-0 first-period deficit, tied the game early in the second and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in a shootout at T-Mobile Arena.

Trevor Connelly scored the deciding shootout goal after Braeden Bowman also converted. Meanwhile, Adin Hill recovered from Toronto’s fast start and stopped its final four shootout attempts. The win improved the Golden Knights to 4-1-0 and extended their winning streak to three games.

Jack Eichel scored the tying goal on a penalty shot and added an assist, pushing his season-opening point streak to five games. Mark Stone and Brett Howden also scored as Vegas finished with a 43-24 advantage in shots.

A brutal start turns quickly

Toronto struck almost immediately when Jack Roslovic scored 34 seconds into the game, banking the puck off Hill from below the goal line. Easton Cowan followed at 3:20 after getting behind the Vegas defense.

By 8:37, Nick Paul had made it 3-0, leaving the Golden Knights in a deep hole before the first period was half over.

Vegas gradually found its footing, however. Stone gave the Golden Knights their first foothold at 17:36, beating Sergei Bobrovsky with a slap shot to cut the deficit to 3-1 before the intermission.

Head coach Ryan Craig called Stone’s goal one of the biggest moments of the night.

“Yeah, it was huge,” Craig said. “Big moment of the game.”

The response continued after the break. Howden drove the far post and redirected a Mitch Marner feed 1:12 into the second, pulling Vegas within one.

Less than three minutes later, Morgan Rielly tripped Eichel on a breakaway. Eichel converted the resulting penalty shot at 3:58, completing the comeback from three goals down.

For Craig, the recovery reflected a team that refused to let the early deficit dictate the night.

“There’s a lot of belief in our locker room,” Craig said. “It comes down to the players with what they do in that situation.”

Vegas takes control

Once Eichel tied the game, the score remained even, but the play tilted sharply toward Vegas.

The Golden Knights outshot Toronto 21-8 in the second period and finished regulation with a 39-21 advantage. Still, Bobrovsky kept the Maple Leafs in the game and eventually finished with 40 saves on 43 shots.

Marner said the Golden Knights never lost confidence despite the poor start.

“We’re a resilient team,” Marner said. “We stay with it. We have a lot of confidence in our game throughout 60 minutes, and I thought we did a great job of that.”

Hill’s night followed a similar path. After allowing three goals on Toronto’s first nine shots, he shut the Maple Leafs out for the remainder of regulation and overtime.

As a result, Vegas had a chance to complete the comeback in the shootout. Hill finished regulation and overtime with 21 saves before taking over again in the tiebreaker.

Kirill Marchenko scored on Toronto’s first attempt. After that, Hill stopped Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Gavin McKenna and John Tavares in succession.