Tortorella gets first win as Knights beat Canucks 4-2

Slow start, better answer

The opening period looked tight.

Vegas brought some edge early, with Ivan Barbashev setting the tone physically, and Reilly Smith drew a penalty when he fought through a slash and still got a shot off on Kevin Lankinen. The Golden Knights created chances from Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin and Smith, but the puck movement still felt hesitant.

Tortorella saw that right away.

“We looked nervous in the first period,” he said. “We were slow. We were making way too many D-to-D plays, looking for a partner and playing sideways.”

Vancouver struck first at 7:41 when Evander Kane finished Jake DeBrusk’s pass on a 2-on-1 after the Canucks turned a failed Vegas hold at the line the other way.

Adin Hill made sure the deficit stayed at one, including a sharp stop on Marco Rossi. But the Knights went to the intermission down 1-0.

Second period, different game

The second period changed everything.

Vegas adjusted its forward combinations and started attacking with much more pace. Instead of circling back for the safe play, the Golden Knights got downhill, and the bench came alive with it.

“We wanted to make sure we kept playing our game but played faster,” Smith said. “I think to start the second there, we really got to our game.”

The tying goal came from that pressure. At 7:48, Rasmus Andersson jumped down from the right point and buried a short-range finish after Tomas Hertl and Hanifin helped keep the play alive around the net.

Vancouver answered at 12:17 when Brock Boeser redirected Filip Hronek’s shot-pass on the power play to restore the Canucks’ lead. But this time, Vegas did not sag.

Cole Smith said the group felt the difference in the second.

“I think in the first we were still a little uptight, but I think you saw in the second our game really, really turned up,” he said.

That push showed up again late. At 17:17, Shea Theodore flew into open ice, took a pass from Barbashev and snapped the tying goal high past Lankinen.

Then, 1:17 later, Smith finished a clean feed from Brayden McNabb to give Vegas its first lead.

Theodore said the message from Tortorella was simple from the start.

“He’s really focused on trying to get us to play faster and play more direct,” Theodore said.

Good enough to close

The third period was not perfect

, but it was solid enough.

Hill stopped all seven Vancouver shots in the final frame, and Vegas stayed mostly in control even if Tortorella still saw some habits he wants cleaned up.

“Got a little stubborn at the blue lines late in the game instead of just playing north,” he said. “Went sideways with it. That almost cost us.”

Still, the Golden Knights handled the period better than they had during much of the skid. Dorofeyev hit the post early, Hertl kept pressing and Vegas stayed physical.

Cole Smith finally put it away at 18:50 with an empty-net goal, the first of his Vegas career, after Jeremy Lauzon won the race to a loose puck and Nic Dowd helped spring the play.

A win, not a cure

This was a needed win, not a defining one.

Vancouver came in as the league’s worst team by record, and Vegas did what it had to do. That alone mattered after the way the season had been sliding.

Tortorella did not frame it as some dramatic reset. He framed it as a mindset.

“I don’t want them afraid to make a mistake,” he said. “I just want the mistakes being made to be done through aggression, not by sitting back.”

For one night, the Golden Knights looked closer to that version of themselves.

Against a weak opponent, that is all it could be. But after everything that led to Sunday’s coaching change, it was still a start.

Playoff chase

Vegas did what it had to do Monday, and the standings tightened with it.

The Golden Knights moved to 33-26-16 with 82 points, just one point behind second-place Edmonton and five back of Anaheim for the Pacific lead. That matters a little more with the Oilers riding a three-game win streak and the Ducks dropping two straight. Vegas is still chasing, but the win at least kept the pressure on the teams above it.

Up next

The Golden Knights stay home Thursday to face the Flames at T-Mobile Arena.

Calgary comes in at 31-35-8, and puck drop is set for 7 p.m. Pacific. It is the last stop before Vegas heads out on a four-game road swing, so there is a little more weight on this one than a normal early-April home date.