Brayden McNabb, Michael Amadio, and Nicolas Roy scored goals as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 on Tuesday night, securing third place in the Pacific Division.
With three consecutive wins, the Knights are now one point ahead of Los Angeles. If they defeat Anaheim on Thursday, they will face Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs to defend their Stanley Cup championship.
“The best time of the year is coming,” Roy said. “We’re trying to get our game in the best place possible. I don’t think it was our best game tonight, but I think defensively we did a great job, enough to win, so there’s a great mood around the team for sure.”
Logan Thompson saved 23 shots for Vegas, nearly securing his second shutout of the season until Jason Dickinson scored for Chicago with 3:58 left in the game.
Petr Mrazek made 34 saves for the Blackhawks, who have lost five consecutive games. Although Connor Bedard contributed an assist, he has only scored one goal in his last 13 games.
“I think he might be feeling like everybody — a little depleted,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “Our record’s not been great. You get to this time of the year, he’s probably disappointed that we’re not in the hunt for a playoff spot, which we all are.”
McNabb made a spin-around rebound shot that gave the Knights the lead with 3:35 left in the second period.
“He kept track of the puck,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He didn’t immediately return to his position, which you sometimes need to do if you lose sight of the puck. But I think he was the only one who knew where it was.
I wasn’t even sure how it went in at first. I don’t think their players knew either, because no one reacted until he spun around.”
Tomas Hertl got the primary assist, marking his fourth point in five games since he was traded from San Jose.
Vegas increased the lead to 2-0 at 7:13 of the third when Amadio seized the puck from Chicago’s Frank Nazar, leading to a breakaway goal from the right circle.
Amadio faced some friendly teasing from his teammates after changing from black to white tape on his stick to try to break his scoring drought. He had scored only one goal in his last 15 games. “I just went cold for a few games, so I was just trying anything I could to get the offense going,” Amadio said.
The Knights almost scored again 2:34 later when a linesman initially awarded Pavel Dorofeyev a goal, but a replay revealed that the puck hit the crossbar and stayed out. Roy’s empty-net goal sealed the victory for Vegas with 1:36 left.
U.S. Olympic swimmer Katie Grimes sounded the horn to start the third period. She narrowly missed out on a medal in 2021 at the age of 15 and became the first American athlete in any sport to qualify for this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
