Olofsson's late third period goal secures win over Canucks

VANCOUVER -- The Vegas Golden Knights come away winning both games in their back-to-back following their 3-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday at Rogers Arena. 

With wins against Calgary and Vancouver, the Golden Knights are now five points ahead of the red-hot Los Angeles Kings, who play on Monday against the Kraken. 

“It’s huge,” Forward Ivan Barbashev said. “It’s kinda nice to get on the winning side. Winning the back-to-back is even better.” 

However, Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy stuck to message from Saturday saying that it's nice to win but the overall focus should be getting his team's game in order. 

"Obviously that matters," Cassidy said when asked about being ahead by five points in the Pacific Division. "It's more about us getting our game in order and playing the right way... I thought we did a real good job controlling the rush game... I liked our game." 

Continuing where they left off from the previous night, shooting half of the team’s total shots (17), the Golden Knights’ second line came up big again.

In control of basically the entire third period, Vegas fired home the go-ahead goal with almost three minutes remaining in the third period. Forward Victor Olofsson snapped in his 14th goal of the season after a backhand pass from a speedy William Karlsson (18) wrapping around behind the net. 

"It was nice to get it, finally," Olofsson said. " I think I had 15 chances these last couple of games, and it was a perfect play by Karly, skating in up the ice and found me right in front of the net... I think all of us work really hard and when this kind of your turn to dig in where we're doing it and I think thats our mindset. We're not trying to play too pretty always, just kind of keep it simple and we're gonna take the chances when we get them." 

“That whole line was outstanding for us,” Barbashev said. “It’s basically a two-way line. They’ve been doing damage lately.”

With the Pacific Division up for grabs and in the middle of a tough-going road trip , the Golden Knights needed to take care of business with six games left in the regular season. 

However, their opening five minutes did not go according to plan. 

Vegas was having a really difficult time being able to get the puck out of their own zone, allowing several high danger scoring chances from the low slot on Adin Hill. Eventually their early style was costly, by letting Vancouver’s Nils Hodlander (7) to draw first blood.

"I'd say the first five wasn't great," Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said. "I thought our goalie kind of stood on his head for us, which was a good way to kind of ease us into the game, I guess. I thought we were a lot better after they got the first goal." 

A couple of minutes later, Ivan Barbashev snapped his eight game goalless streak and scored his 21st on the year. Stone (48) started the rush, slivering past the blue line, generating enough space to pass to a streaking Barbashev, who went full extension on the backhand past goaltender Kevin Lankinen. 

The Golden Knights’ forward Nicolas Roy (13), five minutes later, found the go-ahead goal to give his team a 2-1 lead. The puck would go past the Canuck netminder off the skate of defenseman Victor Mancini. 

Vegas would continue to own the momentum for most of the second period, but failed to light the lamp on a number of great looks. Lankinen was there for all 13 shots during the period to keep the game close. 

After a scoring review, Canucks’ forward Aatu Räty was awarded the equalizer with less than 12 minutes left. Leaning toward questionable, Räty made contact with Hill on his own, pushing him backwards in the crease and didn't allow him to reset.

"He went in there on his own, didn't allow our goaltender to player," Cassidy said. "I don't think there's a rebound if he doesn't go in there, and then he gets bumped so he can't get up... We never get a true answer on that. Eventually, we will. We felt it was goalie interference, or wouldn't have challenged." 

Aside from the controversial goal, Vegas outshot their opposition 25-9 and were perfect again on the penalty kill (0-for-2). 

In net, Hill stopped 19 of 21 shots and had a .905 SV%. Meanwhile Lankinen had an impressive night stopping 32 of 35 while finishing with .914 SV%. 

The Golden Knights will be off on Monday, but will have to refocus for Tuesday’s final game on the road trip against the Colorado Avalanche at 6:30 p.m.