Golden Knights top Sharks in OT
LAS VEGAS -- Jonathan Marchessault jammed in a goal from the left side of the net at 1:21 of overtime to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 5-4 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Friday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena.
It was the eighth-straight home victory for the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights (14-6-1), which tied the NHL record for most consecutive wins by a team in an inaugural season set by the Toronto Arenas in 1917-18.
William Karlsson scored two goals for Vegas, which also snapped San Jose's three-game road win streak.
Vegas jumped out to a 2-0 lead in first period on defenseman Shea Theodore's first goal of the season and Neal's power-play goal over the blocker of San Jose goalie Martin Jones, the 250th career goal for Neal.
The Sharks (11-9-1) cut it to 2-1 when center Tomas Hertl jammed in a pass from right winger Joonas Donskoi, who knocked down a pass to the side of the goal and slid it over to Hertl cutting in alone in front of the net.
The Golden Knights then appeared to take control of the game early in the second period when Karlsson scored two goals in less than seven minutes. The first came on a power play just 10 seconds into the period on a rebound of an Alex Tuch shot to make it 3-1 and sent Jones to the bench for backup Aaron Dell after facing just 14 shots.
Karlsson then re-directed a pass from Jonathan Marchessault to make it 4-1 6:55 into the period, but San Jose rallied to tie it with three straight goals in a 11-minute span. Defenseman Brent Burns, playing in his 900th career game, slapped in a shot from the right point to make it 4-2, Chris Tierney followed with his fifth goal of the season when he re-directed Justin Braun's shot from the right point, and left winger Mikkel Boedker tied it with a power-play goal on a rebound with 49 seconds left in the period.
Thornton was credited with his second assist of the game on Boedker's goal, the 1,017th assist of his career, which moved him past Joe Sakic into 12th place on the NHL's all-time assists list.
Vegas goalie Maxime Lagace, who appeared to be flexing his back as he left the ice at the end of the period, was replaced by Malcolm Subban to start the third period.
San Jose appeared to win it in regulation when Logan Couture rifled a pass from Burns past Subban's stick side but after a lengthy video review the goal was waved off because Donskoi hit Subban's pad in the blue paint about two seconds before the goal.
NOTES: Both teams faced quick turnarounds after the game. San Jose flew home to host Winnipeg on Saturday night while the Golden Knights traveled to Arizona to play the Coyotes, also on Saturday night. ... The Sharks entered the game leading the NHL in penalty kill (89.7 percent), shots allowed per game (28.3) and goals allowed per game (2.20). San Jose had also killed 59 of 63 penalties (93.7 percent) over the previous 19 games. ... RW Kevin Labanc, C Melker Karlsson and D Tim Heed were scratched by San Jose while LW Tomas Nosek and D Jon Merrill were scratched by the Golden Knights.