Howden’s short-handed goal gives Golden Knights 5-4 double-OT win over Mammoth and 3-2 series lead

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brett Howden scored a short-handed goal at 5:28 of the second overtime Wednesday night to give Vegas a 5-4 victory over the Utah Mammoth and put the Golden Knights one victory away from winning the first-round series.

The Golden Knights take a 3-2 lead into their best-of-seven NHL playoffs series on Friday night in Salt Lake City.

Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev’s six-on-five goal with 52.7 seconds left in regulation forced overtime and gave him the sixth playoff hat trick in franchise history. Dorofeyev had two goals in 13 career playoff games before this one.

“That was a huge game by him,” Golden Knights center Jack Eichel said. “He’s a huge part of our team, and it was awesome to see him find the back of the net a few times. It seems like he’s been playing pretty well these last few nights and it’s great to see him get rewarded.”

Neither team scored in the first overtime, the first time this series either side failed in a period to hit the back of the net.

“I think that was a hell of a game,” Mammoth coach André Tourigny said. “I think both teams played really hard. We were really close. Unfortunately, we gave that six-on-five goal and could not get it done in overtime, but I’m really proud of the way the guys played.”

Also for the Golden Knights, Shea Theodore has a goal and assist and Eichel had two assists. Carter Hart stopped 34 shots.

John Marino, Lawson Crouse and Dylan Guenther scored for the Mammoth and Clayton Keller had two assists. Karel Vejmelka made 31 saves.

Utah rallied in the third period when Guenther tied it at 5:54 on a rush play and Michael Carcone on a two-on-one with 7:18 left.

Both teams have continued to struggle on the power play, combining to go 1 for 10. Vegas ended a scoring drought of 13 power plays when Dorofeyev scored from the right circle to make it 1-1 with 40.2 seconds left in the first period. But the Golden Knights are just 3 for 18 for the series, which is better than Utah’s 1-for-14 showing.

Vegas also has two short-handed goals this series, both from Howden that included his shot from the slot to win Game 5. The Golden Knights forced the action that resulted in a faceoff in Utah’s zone. Vegas won the faceoff, Mitch Marner dug the puck from the boards and fed Howden for the winner.

“(Marner) did a good job of getting the stick in there and interrupting play,” Howden said. “It just kind of popped out and I just tried to get a shot. After that, just kind of blacked out.”

The Golden Knights twice rallied in the first two periods, and goals 1:38 apart by Dorofeyev and Theodore late in the second put them ahead 3-2. It’s the first time Vegas took the lead into the third period in this series, but the Golden Knights were the NHL’s best third-period team in the regular season with a plus-47 goal differential.

But both teams have been resilient — and physical.

They combined for 86 hits, each side determined to assert itself. But those also sometimes resulted in unnecessary penalties, with the Mammoth taking three in the first period on an open-ice interference by Nick Schmaltz, a clothesline takedown of Ivan Barbashev by Logan Cooley officially called holding and a boarding minor on Mikhail Sergachev.

The Golden Knights were hardly blameless. Cole Smith picked up a double-minor high-sticking penalty just 11 seconds into third period, but Vegas killed off the four minutes.

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