In Calgary, the Flames continued the Vegas Golden Knights’ scoring woes of late with a 2-1 win on Monday night.
After giving up an early goal to Vegas, the Flames tied the match in the third to force extra time, and won it on a strike by MacKenzie Weegar with five seconds left in the extra session.
“That was all I had left,” Weegar said. “There was probably no backcheck there. I left it all out there, saw an opening, got up the ice as fast as I could, and that’s sort of how it’s been going for me this year.”
The Flames improved to 9-10-3 on their second win in three games.
“I thought it was more about us tonight,” Weegar said. “It’s been more that way for us this year. Obviously, you want to play your best every given night. There’s a lot of stuff about this team being the reigning champs, but I thought [Dan Vladar] stepped up big and really bailed us out a few times there.”
Vladar made 25 saves in the win.
“As soon as I got in, I thought it was a joke, until the national anthems,” Vladar said. “Then I was just trying to give our team a chance to win like I’m trying to do every single game. Obviously, it turned out to probably be my best game of the season.”
William Karlsson was the lone striker for Vegas, his goal at 13:53 of the first gave the Knights a 10 lead.
“Not our best, not our worst, either,” Vegas forward Nicolas Roy said. “It just feels right now that we don’t find ways to win. Obviously, every team in this league is going to have bad stretches. We’re in one right now. We’re such a good team. We found ways to win last year. We’ve just got to bury one when we have the chance and get those wins, for sure.”
The Golden Knights dropped to 14-5-3 off their fourth loss in five games.
The offense has sputtered of late with Vegas scoring two or fewer goals in their last four matches.
“You just keep coming,” Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “Stay positive. Chances are coming. Just bearing down. They’ll go in. We know how it works. We just have to keep grinding away.”
Calgary tied the game, 1-1, at 2:31 of the third on a marker from A.J. Greer.
“Not an easy thing,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “He found out just before my meeting at 5:30. He got his extra work this morning, which isn’t easy for goaltenders, and to find out late, he doesn’t really have a chance to prepare. He did an amazing job. By far his best game of the year for us, and there were some key moments in the game where it could’ve went the other direction off of some turnovers and he made some big saves for us. He was most definitely first star in my books tonight.”
Use CodePHN15 Vegas sitting back too much, letting offense dwindle
Adin Hill made 32 saves in the loss.
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