In Calgary, the Vegas Golden Knights grabbed an early 2-0 lead on the Flames on Thursday night, then held on for a 3-2 win.
Logan Thompson made 37 saves in his first game back for Vegas, but left the game with another injury.
“I don’t know what happened, to be honest,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He just got up and left. I wish he would’ve taken his time so ‘Quickie’ would’ve had a little more time to warm up, to be honest with you.
“He knows his body; I have no idea. At the end of the day, let’s hope it’s not related to the previous injury and it’s something that will be short term.”
Jonathan Quick made five saves in relief..
“It’s tough,” Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev said. “He was really good, especially coming back off of injury. He was great all game long. Tough bounce for him. He was really good today for us.”
The Golden Knights moved to 45-21-6 off their third straight win.
“We find ways to win,” Vegas’ Nicolas Roy said. “I think every game there’s a line that stands out and being healthy on [defense] makes a big difference since the All-Star break, goalies finding a way to steal a game as well. We’re finding ways to win, and I think that’s what is important at this point of the year.”
Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Amadio scored in the opening stanza for the 2-0 advantage.
Calgary’s Milan Lucic trimmed the deficit to 2-1 with 58 seconds left in the first.
“It’s a tough one,” Lucic said. “The effort was there in spurts. We’re a team that relies on all four lines and all six [defensemen] to have success, and I don’t think we’ve had that for a full 60 minutes. When you’re down 2-0 and you’re chasing the game, we weren’t able to tie it up after that.”
Calgary dropped to 32-26-15, and dropped two points in the race for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
“It’s always disappointing to lose, especially the situation we’re in,” Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson said. “I don’t know if its nerves, we’re thinking about it too much. And we’re not thinking about the game that we’re playing if we’re thinking about the situation we’re in maybe a little bit too much.
“I don’t know. It’s of course a little bit frustrating. Nine games left and a lot of stuff can still happen.”
Roy scored early in the third period to push the Vegas lead back to two at 3-1.
“I’m just pretty happy to be back, honestly, and get the win,” Roy said. “It was a big game. Calgary’s got a great team, and it was a battle out there, so it was good to get the win.”
Nazem Kadri scored at 12:33 to pull the Flames back within one, 3-2, but were unable to find the equalizer.
Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves in the Flames loss.
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