Tomas Hertl Wins It With 35 Seconds Left as the Golden Knights Steal One in Pittsburgh

With 35 seconds left in the third period, Mark Stone slid a pass through the crease and Tomas Hertl finished it — his second power-play goal of the night, a 3–2 Vegas lead, and a silence over PPG Paints Arena. The Golden Knights had trailed in the third period, on the second night of a back-to-back, in a building where they almost never win. They won anyway. “We hoped the last two nights would galvanize our group,” Vegas coach Ryan Craig said. “There's a come-from-behind to get a point there [Monday]. Tonight was a grind, but they stayed together.”

Hertl opened the scoring at 16:36 of the first. Mitch Marner's shot went between his legs in the slot, and Hertl backhanded in the rebound; Marner and Jack Eichel assisted. The assist ran Marner's point streak to 11 games — 16 points in the streak, one goal and 15 assists — and Eichel's two-assist night was the 50th multi-assist game of his Vegas career, making him the third Golden Knight to reach the mark after Stone and Shea Theodore (55 each), and the fastest to get there, in 332 games.

Pittsburgh, playing without Evgeni Malkin (lower-body injury, day to day), owned the third period until it didn't. On the first shot of the period, at 1:09, Tommy Novak spun at the top of the crease and tapped in a loose puck after Kaedan Korczak's point shot deflected off Eichel's stick. At 9:58, Novak drove around Marner and fed a pass through the crease for Rickard Rakell to put Pittsburgh ahead 2–1 — Novak's goal and assist and Korczak's two assists had the Penguins in front, and the building believing.

Rookie Trevor Connelly answered 81 seconds later. Fed by Jeremy Lauzon, Connelly broke in alone and went backhand to forehand to beat Arturs Silovs around the right pad at 11:19 — 2–2, and the second straight night Connelly had scored a third-period tying goal, after his 7:23 equalizer in Boston on Monday. “Just trying to win,” Connelly said. “Just kind of putting my best foot down every shift.” Then Vegas's penalty kill did the night's heaviest work: Brayden McNabb high-sticked Sidney Crosby at 16:35, the kill swallowed a 1:22 two-man disadvantage without allowing a shot, and Pittsburgh's power play finished 0-for-6 with four shots all night. “Just didn't put the puck in,” Rakell said. “We had the looks that we wanted and we had some really good opportunities, and we didn't take advantage of it. It's not good enough.” Vegas's power play went 2-for-4 with nine shots.

The winner came gift-wrapped by a penalty. Novak tripped Ivan Barbashev with 1:17 left, and on the power play Stone found Hertl in the crease at 19:25 — 35 seconds from the horn, 34.1 by the wire's count — for the goal that ended it. Adin Hill finished with 23 saves, Silovs with 20. “We've got to get the job done,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said of the late collapse. “Whether it's 5-on-6, whether it's 5-on-5, those are big moments defensively. We have to find a way.”

Vegas (10–5–2) had lost five of its previous six (1–3–2), including Monday's 3–2 shootout loss in Boston, and leaves Pittsburgh with a split of the back-to-back and just its second win in seven (2–3–2). It was also only the franchise's second win in nine games at Pittsburgh (2–6–1), the other coming on Oct. 19, 2019. Pittsburgh (5–8–2) has lost three straight (0–2–1). The full game lives on the matchup's Game Center page, and the night joins the rest of the league on Previously's NHL hub.