LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brayden McNabb, Michael Amadio and Nicolas Roy scored, and the Vegas Golden Knights moved into third place in the Pacific Division after defeating the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 on Tuesday night.
The Knights, who have won three consecutive games, are one point ahead of Los Angeles. If Vegas beats Anaheim on Thursday, the Knights will open their defense of their Stanley Cup championship against Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs. The Kings host the Blackhawks in their season finale on Thursday night.
“The best time of the year is coming,” Roy said. “We’re trying to get our game in the best place possible. I don’t think it was our best game tonight, but I think defensively we did a great job, enough to win, so there’s a great mood around the team for sure.”
Logan Thompson made 23 saves for Vegas. He was working on his second shutout of the season before Jason Dickinson scored for Chicago with 3:58 to go.
Petr Mrazek stopped 34 shots for the Blackhawks (23-53-5), who have lost five in a row. Connor Bedard picked up an assist, but he has one goal in his past 13 games.
“I think he might be feeling like everybody — a little depleted,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “Our record’s not been great. You get to this time of the year, he’s probably disappointed that we’re not in the hunt for a playoff spot, which we all are.”
McNabb used a spin-around rebound shot to put the Knights in front with 3:35 left in the second period.
“He stayed on top of the puck,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He didn’t just immediately get back to his point position, which sometimes you have to if you can’t find the puck. But I think he might’ve been the only guy in the building to know where it is. I wasn’t even sure how it went in at first. I don’t think their guys knew, either, because no one really reacted until he spun around.”
Tomas Hertl had the primary assist for his fourth point in five games since he was acquired in a trade with San Jose.
Vegas extended the lead to 2-0 at 7:13 of the third when Amadio took the puck from Chicago’s Frank Nazar to set up a breakaway goal from the right circle.
Amadio received good-natured ribbing from his teammates after switching from black to white tape on his stick to try to end his scoring drought. He had one goal in his previous 15 games.
“I just went cold for a few games, so I was just trying anything I can to get the offense going,” Amadio said.
The Knights nearly scored again 2:34 later when a linesman awarded Pavel Dorofeyev a goal, but a replay showed the puck hit the crossbar and stayed out.
Roy’s empty-netter closed it out for Vegas with 1:36 left.
U.S. Olympic swimmer Katie Grimes cranked the horn to open the third period. She just missed out on a medal in 2021 at the age of 15 and became the first American athlete in any sport to qualify for this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
UP NEXT
Blackhawks: At Los Angeles on Thursday to end the season.
Golden Knights: Host Anaheim on Thursday to close the regular season.