Eichel's late OT goal caps Golden Knights late rally against Rangers

Jack Eichel scored at 4:52 of overtime to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 3-2 victory against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Brett Howden won the draw, allowing Shea Theodore to bank it off the boards and spring Eichel on a breakaway, who tucked it in at the right post.

“Great win by ‘Howes,’ then great pass by ‘Theo,’” Eichel said. “It was sort of a set play we had planned, and it was nice to see it get executed, but it doesn’t happen without a face-off win.”

Howden and Tomas Hertl scored, while Mark Stone extended his personal point streak to 12 games with two assists for the Golden Knights (14-6-8), who have won four in a row. Carter Hart made 21 saves.

“It's great to win, right? You come out of the first period, and you feel like you're in good shape, your game's coming. You get punched in the face in the second period, right? Thinking you're back to starting over again, like it was just two opposites,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We got a little disrespectful in how we're managing pucks and playing through people versus not playing through people and allowing them ice, and their top guys are all over the sheet. If it wasn’t for Carter, I don’t know.”

Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere each scored and had an assist, while Jonathan Quick made 26 saves for the Rangers (15-12-4), who have lost back-to-back overtime games.

“We're showing the right intentions in the way we play. We talked about it earlier in the season,” Zibanejad said. “I thought we played similarly like this, but we didn't really get the result. Getting some results. Just control what we can. Some things out there, some things that happened that we can't control, but that's unfortunate.”

Howden scored 36 seconds into the game to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. He scored through Quick’s five-hole after a Mitch Marner feed through the slot.

Zibanejad tied the game 1-1 at 9:08 of the second period. He chipped in a loose puck above Hart’s left pad on the backhand.

Lafreniere gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead at 13:01 with a wrist shot from the right circle that hit underneath the crossbar.

"We clearly didn’t have our legs or our energy in the first. The guys responded really well after that. We competed hard,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought the second period we were the dominant team. So, I'll give the guys a lot of credit for how they responded. We get down a goal, and we just kept fighting. I thought after the first, we competed really hard all night."

Hertl tied the game 2-2 at 19:08 of the third period with a backhand shot past Quick to push it to overtime. A pair of roughing penalties prompted a 4-on-4 for the final 1:58 of regulation, but Vegas pulled Hart for the extra attacker on the play.

“The ice was slow, bouncy after the early NBA game. So, we said, just, let's shoot it, let's put the puck at the net,” Hertl said. “Mitch made a great play for a high tip, almost scored, and we just say, 'Keep shooting, and the pucks will be there.’ The puck got to me and I just put it in, so definitely a big goal for us."

NOTES: Eichel’s overtime goal was his 12th career NHL overtime goal, tying Seth Jones of the Florida Panthers for the sixth most among active American players. … Rangers captain J.T. Miller played in his 900th career NHL game. … Artemi Panarin collected his 582nd career point with the Rangers, tying him with Chris Kreider for 10th most in franchise history.