Vegas rally sends Hawks to 5-4 defeat

With loess than a minute gone in the third period, the Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews used the fresh ice of the period to give Chicago a 4-3 lead over the Vegas Golden Knights.

If you think the Knights are phased by anything this season, you are wrong.  It took just over five minutes for Vegas to reply with a goal by Cody Eakin to tie it up at 4-4.

From there it was seemingly just a matter of time for the Knights to take control.

At 13:53, Reilly Smith picked up his 11th of the season, unassisted, to give the Knights the lead they would not relinquish in a 5-4 road win. 

Smith broke up a pass attempt by the Hawks and raced in on a breakaway for the game-winner.

“I think we were waiting for an opportunity and we were lucky that we found one with a couple minutes left,” Smith said.

Alex Tuch, Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson also scored for the Knights.

“You come into each game wanting to win, but you don’t want to lose two in a row,” Eakin said. “We did a good job of managing the effort tonight, and at the end of the day, a split’s better after coming off that loss.”

Malcolm Subban made 28 saves to get the win, his 11th of the season.

“In games like these, if you can make that one more save … sometimes you let in goals at the wrong times, but we’re happy to get the two points,” Subban said.

Vinnie Hinostroza and Patrick Sharp each scored for the second straight game, and Nick Schmaltz

“It wasn’t a great night for our [defense],” Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said. “That was probably as tough a period with how we played with our gap. We gave them the puck and possession on almost every entry, not denying them what we wanted to do.”

Vegas improved to 28-10-2 with the win.

“We can obviously fix stuff. Ultimately, the two points is the most important part,” Subban said after the win.

Fix stuff. Always good to tinker but it seems the Knights are truly Golden this season.

[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Blackhawks highlights]

Jeff Glass made 38 saves in taking the loss.

“The way things are going in games, there are really good stretches and tough stretches, but the tough stretches tonight were elongated or to a different extreme,” Quenneville said after the loss.