The Golden Knights were already banged up.
They entered Monday’s game in Philadelphia down two of their top eight defensemen in Alex Pietrangelo and Ben Hutton as well as their captain in right wing Mark Stone. Then, they learned before puck drop they would be without center William Karlsson and defenseman Zach Whitecloud due to personal reasons and an upper-body injury, respectively.
The Knights, despite that, rallied from a 3-0 deficit in their fourth game in six nights to defeat the Flyers 5-4 in a shootout at Wells Fargo Center.
Center Jack Eichel led the comeback.
The Knights’ leading scorer had a goal and an assist in a 3:50 span in the second period to cut his team’s deficit to 3-2. Eichel picked up a point for the ninth time in 10 games and also recorded his sixth multipoint game in that stretch.
Rookie right Matvei Michkov responded for Philadelphia, but right wing Pavel Dorofeyev scored a power-play goal with 1:50 remaining in the second period to put the Knights (14-6-2) down 4-3 entering the third.
Left wing Tanner Pearson then tied the game with 8:05 remaining in regulation.
The game went to a shootout, and Eichel was the only player from either team to score to give his team the win.
“Obviously, not a great first period,” Eichel said. “Just that willingness to climb back into the game. A lot of credit to the guys tonight. They stuck with it.”
Goaltender Ilya Samsonov made 32 saves in the Knights’ third straight win, with 22 of them coming in the third period and overtime.
Samsonov allowed three goals on the first eight shots he faced. He then stopped 27 of the final 28 he saw to build off his 38-save effort at Ottawa on Thursday.
“He made some big saves,” Pearson said. “It was nice able to help him out on our side, too.”
It was a valiant effort by the Knights given they were missing Pietrangelo (upper-body injury), Hutton (upper-body injury), Stone (lower-body injury), Karlsson and Whitecloud.
Whitecloud is considered day-to-day. Karlsson and his wife Emily are expecting their second child.
The Knights, with the win, improved to 3-1 on their season-long five-game road trip. They’ll close things out against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.
“It’s 3-0. It’s easy to say, ‘OK, let’s move on and get ready for the next one,’” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Our guys dug in.”
Here are three takeaways from the win:
1. Eichel takes over
Eichel did what superstar players do Monday. He took over when his team needed a spark.
His goal 7:42 into the second period got the Knights going. He then had a great individual effort on left wing Ivan Barbashev’s goal less than four minutes later, taking the puck down the ice on a 2-on-1 after a lengthy shift in the defensive zone.
Eichel, who is tied for third in the NHL in scoring with 34 points in 22 games, has a point in all but four of his appearances this season. He’s almost halfway to Karlsson’s team scoring record of 78 points set in 2017-18 and it’s not even December.
2. Samsonov shines
The Knights needed their goaltenders to stand tall this trip given their injuries. Samsonov has done his part.
The 27-year-old allowed 10 goals in his previous two starts before facing the Senators on Thursday. He allowed four goals Monday, but his team let him down with poor net-front coverage.
Samsonov shook off the setbacks and kept making crucial saves, like a windmill stop on defenseman Travis Sanheim during a Flyers power play in overtime.
3. Hanifin’s 700th
Defenseman Noah Hanifin skated in his 700th NHL game Monday. It was overall not a night for him to remember.
Hanifin and his defense partner Kaedan Korczak were on the ice for all four of Philadelphia’s goals. Hanifin at least balanced things out a little by getting the primary assist on Pearson’s game-tying goal in the third period.
Contact Danny Webster at [email protected]. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
