Hanifin powers VGK to their first road win of the season

The Vegas Golden Knights stunningly scored two goals in the final minute of regulation to finally secure their first win on the road this season.

Vegas defeated the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2, Wednesday, Nov. 6 at Rogers Place. It was a matchup between the last two teams to win the Western Conference.

“I thought we played well,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “All in all, I thought it was a pretty even game. For our guys, that’s what it takes on the road. We got to stick with the program and we did that.”

The Knights played the Oilers three times last season with Edmonton taking the season series 2-1. Whoever was the home team won in all three of those matchups, but Vegas ended that streak with the road win Wednesday. This game marked the first of four in this season between these two teams. Their next meeting will be on Tuesday, Dec. 3 from the T-Mobile Arena.

With this win, the Golden Knights improved their overall record to 9-3-1 and reclaimed the top spot in the Pacific Division.

Wednesday’s game also marked the first of nine road games that Vegas will have to play in the month of November, the most of any other month this season.

Speaking of games on the road, this was the first of a two-game road trip for the Knights. Their next game is Friday, Nov. 8, against the Seattle Kraken, at the Climate Pledge Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.

“It’s a big win for us,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “Especially on the road for us. We’ve got to reset tomorrow and get ready for Seattle.”

Going into the final minute of regulation, the game was deadlocked at two and looked to be headed for overtime. It would’ve been the second consecutive overtime game for the VGK.

However, defenseman Noah Hanifin had other plans when he scored his second goal of the game to take the lead and make it 3-2. Forwards Ivan Barbashev and Alexander Holtz assisted on the game-winning goal for their seventh and fifth helpers of the season respectively.

“I think it was a really good play by Barbashev,” Hanifin said. “I think they were watching him a bit and he made a great pass and I was just walking down main street.”

Hanifin’s game-winner counted as his third goal of the season in addition to being his second of the night.

“He just moves so well,” McNabb said. “He’s playing awesome right now and it’s great to see.”

Just 44 seconds later, captain Mark Stone scored an empty netter to secure the win. Barbashev also assisted on this goal, along with center Jack Eichel. The empty net goal was Stone’s sixth of the season.

“We’ve been playing so great at home,” Hanifin said. “When you play on the road, you got to grind those games and be responsible defensively.”

Before assisting on the final goal of the night, Eichel got the scoring started himself with his first period goal off assists from Barbashev and defenseman Shea Theodore. Barbashev finished the game with three assists to improve his season total to eight.

It was the only assist of the night for Theodore, but he still had a record-breaking game. He surpassed former Vegas star Jonathan Marchessault for most games played in Golden Knight history at 515.

Eichel would later have a hand in Hanifin scoring his first goal midway through the third period on a power play along with teammate William Karlsson for his fourth assist on the season.

Eichel ended the night with three points and now has 19 total points on the season.

“We could’ve played quicker on the back end,” Hanifin said. “ And be more assertive with the puck. I think in the third, we really did that. We took it to them and I think that was the difference.”

Wednesday’s game also reunited Eichel with Oilers’ superstar Connor McDavid, who are forever linked as the first two draft picks in the 2015 NHL Draft. McDavid returned to action for Edmonton after missing the last three games with an ankle injury.

In terms of returns, defenseman Ben Hutton made his season debut for Vegas by filling in for fellow d-man Nicolas Hague, who is out with a lower body injury.

The Knights were 50% on the power play tonight. Before Hanifin’s goal, forward Pavel Dorofeyev was momentarily injured when he took a stick to the face. He sat out for a few minutes while tending to his mouth before returning to the game.

“We stayed with it, we got back to what makes us good,” McNabb said. “Took care of pucks and we eventually got rewarded.”

On the defensive side, VGK mostly played a clean game. They only committed one penalty but were able to kill Edmonton’s power play.

“In fact, I’m not even sure it was a penalty,” Cassidy said. “I think it was friendly fire, so at the end of the day, I think we were excellent in that area.”

VGK goalie Adin Hill got the start in between the pipes for the visitors and looked fresh after having the past four days off.

“I thought we had a really good defensive effort,” Hanifin said. “That’s how you win road games.”

Hill used every part of his body to pull off some big-time saves that were reminiscent of his 2023 Stanley Cup run. There were saves that included him using his stick, gloves, pad, hip, back, and even his mask.

“He played awesome,” McNabb said. “He was great […] It was good to reward him for that save.”

Besides the first goal he surrendered, the only other bounce that didn’t go his way was a weird one where the puck bounced off the wall before being put through the back of the net.

“They got a rare fortunate bounce off the boards,” Cassidy said. “It came off the white part of the boards too, which is odd. It’s usually the yellow where they kick out like that, but it didn’t deter us.”

At the end of the night, Hill finished with 27 saves and a .931 save percentage.