CALGARY, ALBERTA (AP) — Logan Thompson made 37 saves, and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Calgary Flames 3-2 on Thursday night.
Nicolas Roy scored for Vegas (45-21-6) in his return from an 18-game absence. Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Amadio also scored.
Thompson exited late in the third period for an undisclosed reason. Jonathan Quick played the final 6:07 of the contest and made five saves.
Milan Lucic and Nazem Kadri scored for Calgary (32-26-15). Jacob Markstrom stopped 29 shots in his 11th start in the last 12 games.
In avenging their 7-2 home loss to the Flames last week, the Golden Knights earned their seventh win in eight games and improved to 16-3-2 in their last 21 overall.
It was a tough blow for Calgary’s flickering playoff hopes. The Flames dropped six points back of Winnipeg for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
Up 2-1 entering the third period, Vegas got some breathing room at 5:19 when pressure by Roy created a defensive zone turnover by Rasmus Andersson. Roy then went to the net, received a pass from Phil Kessel and fired a shot over Markstrom.
The Flames pulled within one at 12:33 when Kadri ended his 16-game goal drought with a power-play marker, but that’s as close as they would get.
Calgary fell to 0-18-3 when trailing after two periods.
Vegas, which entered the night having outscored teams 70-45 in the first period this year, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame.
Jack Eichel sprung Marchessault and Ivan Barbashev on a 2-on-1, with Marchessault patiently holding onto the puck before whipping a shot past Markstrom high on his blocker side at 11:43.
Then Amadio got free and rattled in his own rebound at 15:23.
Lucic cut the deficit in half with 58 seconds left in the frame. Walker Duehr hustled up the ice after a turnover, fended off some back pressure and zipped a cross-ice pass to Lucic, who sent the puck just under the crossbar and in.
SHOW OF SUPPORT
The Flames wore #SnowyStrong stickers on the back of their helmets in support of assistant general manager Chris Snow’s ongoing battle with ALS.
STREAK SNAPPED
Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith had his career-best point streak snapped at nine games (four goals, 11 assists). It equaled the franchise best, also held by Alex Tuch, Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty.
UP NEXT
Golden Knights: Travel to Edmonton to face Connor McDavid and the Oilers on Saturday night.
Flames: Host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
