Tomas Hertl scored two goals and rookie Carl Lindbom made 18 saves to pick up his first NHL win as the Vegas Golden Knights snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
It was the 36th career multi-goal game of Hertl’s career and the first this season. Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist, and Colton Sissons also scored for Vegas, which scored its ninth consecutive win over San Jose while improving to 29-2-5 all-time against the Sharks.
Will Smith scored two goals and William Eklund also scored for San Jose. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 20 of 24 shots.
Smith, playing in his 100th NHL game, gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at the 7:34 mark of the first period when he flicked a wrist shot from near the left faceoff circle past Lindbom’s glove and into the top far corner.
Vegas snapped a streak of three straight games of falling behind 2-0 when Hertl tied it near the end of the period, picking up a loose puck in the slot and then ripping a wrist shot past Nedeljkovic’s blocker side.
The Golden Knights built a 4-1 lead in the second period on consecutive goals by Sissons, Marner and Hertl. Sissons tapped in a rebound of a Keegan Kolesar shot at the end of an odd-man rush at the 5:36 mark. Marner circled behind the net and wrapped in a shot around the right post at 7:02 gone. Hertl redirected Marner’s point shot under Nedeljkovic’s pads for a power-play goal at the 12:38 mark.
But San Jose rallied to cut the lead to 4-3 near the end of the period on a power-play goal by Smith, who one-timed a Kolesar turnover in front of the net, and a breakaway goal by Eklund off an Adam Gaudette pass following a neutral-zone giveaway by Alexander Holtz.
The Sharks pulled Nedeljkovic for an extra attacker with 1:45 remaining and the Golden Knights missed a couple of opportunities to seal it with errant empty-net tries by Marner and Brayden McNabb. McNabb then picked up a cross-checking penalty with 34.5 seconds left to give San Jose a 6-on-4 power-play, but Lindbom stopped wrist shots by Alexander Wennberg and Eklund during the final frantic seconds to pick up his first win in seven career starts.
