CALGARY, Alberta – Logan Thompson made 37 saves as the surging Golden Knights defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2.
“Right now, obviously concerned about Logan,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Obviously, Logan missing that much time, we´ll have to look closely at that one.”
It was unknown if the latest setback is related to the lower-body injury he suffered on Feb. 9.
“I don´t know what happened, to be honest. He just got up and left,” Cassidy said. “He knows his body. I have no idea. At the end of the day, let´s hope it´s not related to the previous injury and it´s something that will be short term.”
Up 3-2 at the time, Jonathan Quick came in and turned aside all five shots he faced as Calgary poured on the pressure in search of the tying goal.
“It doesn´t happen really often but when he got out there (Quick) made a couple really good saves to keep us in the game,” Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev said.
The best chance came off the stick of MacKenzie Weegar with a minute to go but he couldn´t beat Quick from 30 feet out.
“I saw the net and I missed my shot,” the Flames defenseman said according to AP. “If there was one chance I can get back all year, it would be that one.”
Nicolas Roy scored for Vegas (45-21-6) in his return from an 18-game absence. Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Amadio also scored.
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.
Vegas opened a four-point cushion on the Los Angeles Kings atop the Pacific Division.
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.
It was Calgary’s 27th one-goal loss this year, which leads the NHL.
“We´re in every game, and we have a chance to win every game we´re playing, so it obviously makes it more frustrating that we lose and it feels like we´re always losing by that one goal,” Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson said.
“I don´t know how many games I´ve played back in my head thinking that `Ah, I should have scored that´ or `How did we not score that´ and we would have been in a different situation, but it´s the reality.”
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.
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