Reilly Smith's OT winner lifts Golden Knights over Blues

Coming into Friday, half of the Golden Knights games with the St. Louis Blues — five of 10 all-time — had gone to overtime, including the last three. So maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise this one did as well.

A back-and-forth third period forced an extra frame and Vegas picked a perfect time to break out of its power-play slump. Reilly Smith was tripped in overtime to trigger a power play, and he scored the game-winner 2:38 into overtime to give the Golden Knights their first-ever win at Enterprise Center, 5-4 over the Blues.

The Golden Knights had gone 16 power plays without a goal before Smith's winner, including three during regulation on Friday.

“Really nice to be able to help our team get two points,” Smith said. “Our power play hasn’t been clicking how we want to and we've been trying to reinvent the wheel a little bit when you’re struggling like that to put the puck in the net.”

It was the Golden Knights’ first power play in overtime since Feb. 13, 2020 against, naturally, the Blues. Jonathan Marchessault scored on that one, and Vegas’ only two overtime power-play winners in its history have come against St. Louis.

It was necessary because the unit has not been good going back more than a week. The Golden Knights’ last goal with the extra man game March 1 at home against the Wild, dropping the team to a 17.3% success rate, eighth-worst in the NHL.

“We’re just stressed when we get out there,” said forward Mark Stone, who scored in the first period. “I think guys are thinking a little too much, panicking a little too much with the puck. We have great players who can make a great power play, we just have to kind of relax and chill a bit.”

Smith’s goal snapped a power-play drought, but it also snapped a winless drought in St. Louis as Vegas had not won in its four previous chances on the road against the Blues. The Golden Knights have still never beaten the Blues in regulation during the regular season, but are now 5-5-1 all-time against them.

The Golden Knights entered the third period with a 3-2 lead, but two St. Louis power-play goals tilted the scales in the other direction. Zach Sanford tapped in a rebound at 4:53 of the period and David Perron one-timed in a blast at 10:40 to give the Blues their first lead of the game.

St. Louis’ power play was 2-for-3 on the night, and Vegas’ was 1-for-4.

“It seems like they are always special-teams games and for some reason their power play always gets us,” Smith said. “There is a lot of back-and-forth when we play them and a lot of late goals and overtime goals. That’s not the way we want to play, but we just have to find a way to win those games.”

Vegas tied the game again just 47 seconds later when defenseman Alec Martinez crashed the net and got enough of it to net his second of the season and even the game 4-4, setting up Smith’s winner.

Marc-Andre Fleury started and earned the win for Vegas, which was newsworthy considering he woke up Friday on the NHL’s “COVID Protocol Related Absences” list. At morning skate, the Golden Knights were prepared to dress a goalie tandem of rookies Logan Thompson and Dylan Ferguson, who have combined for 17 minutes of NHL experience and three saves in their careers.

Then about three hours before the game, the Golden Knights announced that Fleury had experienced a false positive test for COVID-19. His result came back when the team arrived in St. Louis after Wednesday’s game in Minnesota, and Fleury isolated in his room. He returned four negative tests, and was eligible to play.

“A little stressful, no doubt,” Fleury said. “I didn’t get out my room until 12 or 1 o’clock today. It was nice to be free and walk outside a bit, getting around and have lunch with a few guys.”

Before the third, the Golden Knights controlled most of the game and jumped on St. Louis late in the first period, scoring twice in a 41-second span.

First was Stone finishing off a pretty play among Max Pacioretty, Chandler Stephenson and himself. The passing was pristine off the transition, and Stone capped it by tipping in the puck from the blue paint with 5:12 left in the first.

Next up was Jonathan Marchessault, who kept alive his streak of not going more than two games in a row without a point. He jumped all over a rebound and put it home to give Vegas a 2-0 lead after a period.

The Blues weren't going away though. They broke through at 5:14 into the second period to trim their deficit to one goal, and even after Tomas Nosek scored for Vegas, Vladimir Tarasenko scored again for St. Louis to keep it a one-goal game, 3-2 Vegas, after two periods.

The Golden Knights led in shots on goal 39-23.