SEATTLE — For 45 minutes, the Vegas Golden Knights looked like a team that hadn’t lost under new coach John Tortorella. Then a puck took an unpredictable detour off the stanchion, and everything changed.
Berkly Catton pounced on the carom and scored at 6:11 of the third period, cutting the Knights’ lead to 3-2 and igniting a Kraken comeback that ended in a 4-3 shootout win Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena. It was Vegas’s first loss in five games under Tortorella.
The bizarre sequence began when Seattle defenseman Adam Larsson dumped the puck in from the red line as the Knights attempted a line change. Goaltender Adin Hill moved to play the puck as it rimmed around the boards, but it bounced off the stanchion and landed directly on Catton’s stick. By the time Hill recovered, Catton had slid the puck into the net.
“It gives them life,” Tortorella said. “They get a bounce, gives them some life.”
The goal came just five minutes after Brett Howden had restored a two-goal lead 1:11 into the third period, finishing a 4-on-2 rush. Captain Mark Stone had earlier scored twice, giving the Knights a 3-1 advantage.
Seattle tied it 3-2 on Bobby McMann’s goal 3:05 after Catton’s tally. McMann beat Hill from the right circle off a sustained offensive-zone sequence by the Kraken.
“I think they created a little more momentum off of that,” Howden said. “They’re a fast team. They got a bounce there and they kind of rolled with it.”
Hill finished with 30 saves in his first start since March 30, after Carter Hart had played the previous three games. Tortorella declined to evaluate Hill’s performance in detail but said, “I thought he made some really big saves.”
The Knights earned a point for the seventh straight game, moving from a tie for first to a tie for second — holding the tiebreaker over the Anaheim Ducks — with three games remaining.
Vegas faces the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, a team that clinched the Presidents’ Trophy on Thursday for the NHL’s best record. The Knights must shift from facing the league’s seventh-worst offense to its top scoring unit in 48 hours.
“You want to get as many points as you want, but it’s a tough league,” Tortorella said. “These games come at you and you just never know what’s going to happen. We grab that point, we leave and get ready for our next game.”
