Reilly Smith scored at 1:24 of overtime as the Vegas Golden Knights rallied for a 4-3 victory at San Jose on Thursday night, spoiling the Sharks’ season opener.
The winning goal came after San Jose goalie Alex Nedeljkovic skated to the blue line to try and clear the puck. His pass was blocked by Smith and caromed to Shea Theodore, who passed it back to a wide-open Smith for a tap-in into the vacated net.
Jack Eichel had a goal and an assists for Vegas, which improved to 15-0-3 all-time in regular-season games played at San Jose. Pavel Durofeyev and Brett Howden also scored, Mark Stone logged two assists and Akira Schmid made 20 saves for the Golden Knights, who improved to 28-2-5 all-time against the Sharks.
Vegas was coming off a 6-5 shootout defeat against the visiting Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.
Philipp Kurashev, Jeff Skinner and Alexander Wennberg scored goals and Shakir Mukhamadullin had two assists for San Jose. Nedeljkovic finished with 27 saves.
Down 3-2, Vegas pulled Schmid for an extra attacker with 2:22 remaining and Eichel tied with 1:34 to go. His long dump-in shot from outside the blue line took a crazy hop and bounced through Nedeljkovic’s pads. The score came after William Eklund missed two tries at an empty net that would have sealed the win.
San Jose took a 1-0 lead at the 5:31 mark of the first period when Skinner, stationed by the right post, slapped in a rebound of a Ty Dellandrea shot for his first goal with the Sharks and also his 700th career point.
Vegas tied it midway through the first period when Howden skated in untouched from the right boards and stuffed in a wrist shot around Nedeljkovic’s left pad.
The Sharks regained the lead 2-1 in the second period on a 5-on-3 power-play goal by Wennberg. Eklund picked up the primary assist with a one-timer from the left circle that deflected off the skate of defenseman Brayden McNabb to Wennberg in front of the crease. Wennberg then shoveled in the puck into an open net.
The Golden Knights tied it near the end of the middle period on a power-play goal by Dorofeyev. He one-timed a Stone crossing pass from the bottom of the right circle inside the near post.
San Jose took a 3-2 lead at the 2:59 mark of the third period when Kurashev redirected Dmitry Orlov’s shot from above the left circle past Schmid’s glove side.
