Tomas Hertl scored twice in the third period and Adin Hill made 28 saves as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 on Sunday afternoon.
Mitch Marner scored a short-handed goal and had an assist, Ivan Barbashev had two assists and Jack Eichel also scored a goal for Vegas, which won its third straight game. The Golden Knights finished their four-game East Coast road trip with seven of a possible eight points, with the only loss coming in a shootout at Atlantic Division-leading Boston.
Beck Malenstyn scored and Colten Ellis stopped 22 of 26 shots for Buffalo.
The Sabres, who entered the contest with four victories in their last five games, dominated the opening period, outshooting the Golden Knights 14-6, but couldn’t manage to get a shot past Hill, who made a handful of grade-A saves.
The script flipped in the second period when Vegas took a 2-0 lead while outshooting the Sabres, 11-5. Ellis kept it scoreless early in the period when he stopped William Karlsson on a clean breakaway and also saved the ensuing rebound.
Vegas then took a 1-0 lead at the 12:17 mark on Marner’s short-handed breakaway goal. Marner intercepted a Zach Benson pass near the blue line, then skated in and jammed in a wrist shot past the left pad of Ellis for his third goal.
The Golden Knights increased the lead to 2-0 just 86 seconds later on Eichel’s eighth goal. Barbashev set up the score, bolting from the penalty box and skating straight to the left corner, where he stole the puck from defenseman Owen Power and passed it to Eichel at the bottom of the left circle. Eichel then drove a shot inside the near post.
Buffalo cut the lead to 2-1 at the 4:26 mark of the third period when Malenstyn slid in a shot during a goalmouth scrum for his first goal.
But Hertl responded with back-to-back goals in a little over a four-minute span to increase the lead to 4-1, twice roofing wrist shots past the glove side of Ellis.