Brayden McNabb, Michael Amadio, and Nicolas Roy scored as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 on Tuesday night, moving into third place in the Pacific Division.
The Knights, now on a three-game winning streak, are one point ahead of Los Angeles. A victory over Anaheim on Thursday will secure Vegas a first-round playoff matchup against Edmonton. The Kings will host the Blackhawks in their season finale on Thursday night.
“The best time of the year is coming,” Roy said. “We’re trying to get our game in the best place possible. I don’t think it was our best game tonight, but I think defensively we did a great job, enough to win, so there’s a great mood around the team for sure.”
Logan Thompson made 23 saves for Vegas, nearly securing his second shutout of the season until Jason Dickinson scored for Chicago with 3:58 remaining.
Petr Mrazek stopped 34 shots for the Blackhawks (23-53-5), who have now lost five consecutive games. Connor Bedard recorded an assist, but he has just one goal in his last 13 games.
“I think he might be feeling like everybody — a little depleted,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “Our record’s not been great. You get to this time of the year; he’s probably disappointed that we’re not in the hunt for a playoff spot, which we all are.”
McNabb put the Knights ahead with 3:35 left in the second period, scoring with a spin-around rebound shot.
“He stayed on top of the puck,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He didn’t just immediately return to his point position, which sometimes you have to if you can’t find the puck. But I think he might’ve been the only guy in the building who knew where it was. I wasn’t even sure how it went in at first. I don’t think their guys knew because no one reacted until he spun around.”
Tomas Hertl, with the primary assist, now has four points in five games since being traded from San Jose.
Vegas extended its lead to 2-0 at 7:13 of the third period when Amadio took the puck from Chicago’s Frank Nazar and scored on a breakaway from the right circle.
Amadio received good-natured ribbing from his teammates after switching from black to white tape on his stick to try to end his scoring drought. He had one goal in his previous 15 games.
“I just went cold for a few games, so I was just trying anything I could to get the offense going,” Amadio said.
The Knights nearly scored again 2:34 later when a linesman awarded Pavel Dorofeyev a goal, but a replay showed the puck hit the crossbar and stayed out.
Roy’s empty-netter sealed the win for Vegas with 1:36 remaining.
U.S. Olympic swimmer Katie Grimes, who just missed a medal in 2021 at age 15 and became the first American athlete to qualify for this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, sounded the horn to open the third period.
UP NEXT
- Blackhawks: At Los Angeles on Thursday to end the season.
- Golden Knights: Host Anaheim on Thursday to close the regular season.