SEATTLE — Jonathan Marchessault scored his second goal of the game with 16 seconds left to force overtime, Jack Eichel scored 3:01 into the extra session and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Seattle Kraken 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Vegas picked up a big two points in the standings and moved nine points clear of Seattle in the chase for one of the wild-card spots in the Western Conference. Vegas is also six points clear of Minnesota and eight points in front of St. Louis, but the victory could knock Seattle from the list of teams trying to chase down the Golden Knights.
Marchessault’s tying goal came with the Vegas net empty. A shot from Eichel bounced off the stick of Chandler Stevenson and fell to Marchessault with an open net.
In overtime, both Vegas goalie Adin Hill and Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer made big stops, but Eichel was sprung free on a breakaway and scored his 20th of the season to give the Golden Knights their second straight victory.
Marchessault also scored on the power play in the second period and has 37 goals this season, including five in his past two games. William Karlsson scored his 23rd with 7:37 remaining to pull the Golden Knights within 4-3.
Seattle trailed 2-1 going to the third period, but staged a three-goal rally to take a 4-2 lead and seemed on the verge of a crucial two points to try and narrow the gap in the playoff chase.
Matty Beniers scored 1:55 into the third period to pull Seattle even, redirecting Will Borgen’s shot from the blue line. It was Beniers’ ninth goal of the season and first since Feb. 15 in Boston.
Brandon Tanev gave Seattle the lead a few minutes later and Oliver Bjorkstrand capped Seattle’s rally getting sprung free by Eeli Tolvanen on a breakaway that gave Seattle a 4-2 lead.
Andre Burakovsky also scored for Seattle in the second period.
Hill finished with 26 saves. Grubauer stopped 29 shots.
Seattle’s Jordan Eberle skated in his 1,000th game becoming the fifth player from the 2010 draft class to reach the milestone joining Drew Doughty, Steven Stamkos, Josh Bailey and Alex Pietrangelo. Eberle played 507 games with Edmonton, 272 with the New York Islanders, and Tuesday was his 221st with Seattle.
Eberle signed a two-year contract extension with the Kraken last week that will keep him with the team through the 2025-26 season.
Up next
Golden Knights: at Calgary on Thursday night.
Kraken: Host Washington on Thursday night.
