LAS VEGAS (AP) Golden Knights goalie Malcolm Subban is a stickler about staying focused on game day, and he never wavered Tuesday night.
Alex Tuch scored the game-winning goal in the first shootout at Vegas, and Subban stopped all three attempts he faced during the tiebreaker as the Golden Knights earned a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
The expansion Golden Knights improved to 6-1 in overtime games, including 5-0 at home. Vegas is 11-2 at home overall, and 9-1 against Pacific Division foes.
Subban made several saves when it really counted. He came up huge on a 3-on-1 break in overtime when he robbed Ondrej Kase on a wrist shot from just in front of the crease, then stonewalled the Ducks during a 4-on-3 power play.
”Our team played such a good game and when it came down to a shootout, I had to bear down and give my team a chance to win,” said Subban, who finished with 26 saves. ”I felt like I didn’t want to let anyone down.”
James Neal, Oscar Lindberg and Erik Haula scored in regulation for the Golden Knights.
Vegas got two quick goals near the end of the first period, when Neal’s knuckler found its way over the glove of an outstretched John Gibson. Moments later, from the same line, Lindberg caught Gibson in the same position and popped a rebound over his glove to give the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead.
The Ducks took advantage of an aggressive attack in the second period, getting three straight goals from Francois Beauchemin, Antoine Vermette and Corey Perry to take a 3-2 lead.
Beauchemin cut Vegas’ lead in half with a slap shot from the point a minute into the second, and four minutes later Vermette tied it when he redirected Kevin Bieksa’s slap shot from the point.
Late in the period, Haula’s pass to the crease went straight to Adam Henrique, whose perfect pass down the ice set up Perry for a breakaway goal to give the Ducks a 3-2 edge.
”I don’t blame him for any of those goals,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said about Subban. ”I thought he played really well and strong, and it just shows the kid is getting better and more confident, because he went out in the third period and made a couple of big saves. Obviously in the overtime, made that unbelievable glove save. He battled hard and he’s getting some good experience.”
Haula made up for his ill-fated pass when he punched one past Gibson to tie it 3-all with a little more than four minutes left in the third.
Gibson stopped 40 shots for Anaheim.
”I’m not going to get too wired up about how we played in it and how we didn’t close it out, whatever,” Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. ”We got a point, we’re going to move on. It’s been a tough road trip, played some good teams in some raucous buildings. We were down 2-0 and we found a way to steal a point.”
NOTES: Henrique, acquired by the Ducks with Joseph Blandisi and a 2018 third-round draft pick from New Jersey on Nov. 30, has registered an assist in each of his first three games with Anaheim. … Golden Knights D Brayden McNabb, who leads the team with 59 hits and 54 blocked shots, is one of eight NHL players who have compiled at least 50 in each of those categories this season. … Vermette played in his 100th game with the Ducks.
UP NEXT
Ducks: Return home to host Ottawa on Wednesday.
Golden Knights: Play at Nashville on Friday.
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