LAS VEGAS — 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 clinch that spot and face Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs. The Kings host the Blackhawks in their season finale on Thursday night.
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.
This game was scoreless until 3:35 remained in the second period and McNabb used a spin-around rebound shot to put the Knights in front with 3:35 left in the second period. 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.
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.
