Marc Gatcomb scored his first goal for the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, and it came at the exact moment they needed it. His tap-in at 18:28 of the second period gave Vegas a 3-2 lead over the Vancouver Canucks, and the Golden Knights held on for the win at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
The goal landed 34 seconds after Jonathan Lekkerimaki had tied the game 2-2, a response that turned a tense stretch back in Vegas's favor. Braeden Bowman started the sequence with a wraparound attempt, and Gatcomb finished it for the Golden Knights after signing with the club as a free agent on July 1. It was the kind of quick answer that can decide a one-goal game before the other side has time to settle.
Marc Gatcomb's finish capped a game in which the Golden Knights showed they could absorb pressure and still find another gear. Mitch Marner scored at 9:01 of the second period to tie it 1-1, Victor Olofsson also scored for Vegas, and Adin Hill made 18 saves, including nine in the third period in his first start of the season. Kevin Lankinen stopped 25 shots for Vancouver, while Paul Cotter scored at 18:52 of the first period and extended his point streak to four games and six points in his 300th NHL game.
The friction in the result was the speed of the reply. Vancouver had just pulled level, and Vegas answered almost immediately, with the winning sequence starting from Bowman and ending with Gatcomb at the net. Hill said afterward that the group responded on the next shift and then closed it out, which matched the way the final minutes unfolded: one chance, one finish, then enough goaltending to keep the lead intact.
The win moved the Golden Knights to 2-1-0 after their loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. The Canucks fell to 2-2-0 after playing on consecutive days, and that workload showed up in a game that swung on a narrow margin. For Vegas, Gatcomb's first goal with the club was more than a milestone. It was the difference between leaving empty-handed and leaving with two points.
