The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in overtime on Thursday evening, with Reilly Smith scoring the game-winning goal to give Vegas a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Paul Stastny, Tomas Nosek and Mark Stone also scored goals for the Knights, while Dylan Strome, Dominik Kubalik and Kirby Dach scored for Chicago.
The Golden Knights stormed out to an early lead over the Blackhawks in the game, scoring two goals in the first period. Paul Stastny collected a pass in front of the Hawks’ net with about nine minutes to go in the frame, and he fired home the shot to give Vegas a 1-0 lead.
Just five minutes later, Duncan Keith missed a hit at the blue line and surrendered an odd-man chance to the Golden Knights, and they took full advantage as Tomas Nosek fired a shot that squeezed under Crawford’s arm and into the net to make it a 2-0 game after 20 minutes of action.
Undaunted, the Blackhawks came back and tied things up in the second. Dach scored his first career playoff goal just three minutes into the frame, collecting a rebound off of a Calvin de Haan shot and sliding it into the empty cage to make it 2-1. Kubalik then scored on the power play with eight minutes to go in the frame, rifling a shot through a screen and past Robin Lehner to knot things up at 2-2.
The Golden Knights scored with three minutes to go in the period to take the lead back, but once again the Blackhawks stood firm, as Strome tapped home an easy-one timer on an incredible back-handed pass by Kane to tie the game at 3-3 with 13 seconds left in the period.
The two teams played a scoreless third period, but the Golden Knights dominated possession, racking up a breathtaking 25 shot attempts in the period to just 10 for Chicago. Even still, Crawford stood on his head when he needed to, keeping the game knotted up after 60 minutes.
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That all ended in the overtime period, as Smith one-timed a shot past Crawford in front of the net to give Vegas the victory and a 2-0 lead in the series.
The Blackhawks will serve as the home team in Game 3 on Saturday, with puck drop set for 7 p.m. The game will air on NBC 5 Chicago.
