Toffoli’s hat trick lifts Devils past Golden Knights in OT
Lazar scores twice for New Jersey; Marchessault, Roy each gets 3 points for Vegas
Toffoli won it from the right face-off circle off a 2-on-1 with Luke Hughes, who intercepted the puck in the neutral zone to create the odd-man rush.
"I said to 'Toff' before I put him out in overtime, I said, 'Go out and finish this thing,'" New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. "And he did, so he's a good listener."
Curtis Lazar scored twice, and Nathan Bastian and Simon Nemec each had two assists for the Devils (24-18-3), who had lost three of four. Vitek Vanecek made 27 saves.
Lazar tied it 5-5 when he put in a rebound at the left post at 9:14 of the third period.
"We definitely needed to bounce back," Toffoli said. "We knew that they were one of the top teams in the West, so it was a chance for us to bounce back and find a way and dig deep. … I thought we let it slip a little bit in the second, but stayed with it, dug deep and found a way."
Jonathan Marchessault had two goals and an assist to extend his goal streak to four games for the Golden Knights (27-14-6), who had won three straight. Nicolas Roy had a goal and two assists, Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist, and Logan Thompson made 32 saves.
"We basically played a beer league game," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We thought it was preseason, I guess. We didn't defend to our structure, our principles at all. The plays we made right up to the last goal were careless, disrespectful to the game. At the end of the day, we lose and it's what we deserve if we're going to play like that."
The Devils were down 5-3 with 52 seconds left in the second period after the Golden Knights scored four goals in a span of 11:29 in the period.
Toffoli cut it to 5-4 with 16 seconds left in the second with a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Thompson five-hole.
"The goal at the end of the period was a big momentum goal for us," Ruff said. "Probably the biggest goal of the game."
Pavel Dorofeyev gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 6:12 of the first period with a snap shot from the right circle on a 2-on-1 rush.
Nico Hischier tied it 1-1 at 15:21, scoring from the slot off a pass from Timo Meier, who was behind the goal line.
New Jersey made it 2-1 at 19:38 with another pass from below the goal line into the slot, Erik Haula finding Lazar wide open this time.
Toffoli gave the Devils a 3-1 lead with a shot from between the circles after a 1-on-1 move around Vegas defenseman Zach Whitecloud at 1:37 of the second period.
"The first two, [Nicolas] Hague was beside [Hischier] but not taking him, the other one [Kaedan] Korczak was cheating to the far post," Cassidy said. "That's basic structure for us. We protect the middle of the ice. It's what we do do well most nights. Tonight, obviously it was not the case. I recognize Jersey is a really good offensive team, they make good plays. We got beat 1-on-1 a number of times. To me, that's not hard defending and that will happen against this team. But at the end of the day, we have a veteran 'D' corps and they were not good tonight as a group."
Marchessault led the Golden Knights' response. He scored his first off a rebound to make it 3-2 at 7:39, and tied it 3-3 at 10:00 on a 2-on-1 rush with Ivan Barbashev.
Stephenson then gave Vegas a 4-3 lead, scoring a 4-on-4 goal with a redirect off Mark Stone's saucer pass into the slot at 10:48.
Roy made it 5-3 at 19:08 with a one-timer in front off a pass from behind the net by Marchessault.
But Toffoli's answer 36 seconds after Roy's goal gave the Devils the confidence they could dig deep to come back.
"We said we've got to find a way to get a goal, get the game tied up," Ruff said. "If you tie the game, you're getting a point, and then try to get two. Overall, I think to battle back to what we went through, that adversity in the second period and get the tying goal, I mean, every guy in that room should feel good about what happened in the third period and the ending in overtime."
Cassidy made sure the Golden Knights didn't.
"Tonight was not something that should be acceptable and quite frankly, it won't be," he said.
NOTES: Toffoli's hat trick is his second of the season (Oct. 24 against the Montreal Canadiens) and sixth of his career. He's the first Devils player since Ilya Kovalchuk in 2011-12 to have multiple hat tricks in the same season. … The Devils came from behind to win for the 16th time this season, most in the NHL. … Vegas goalie Adin Hill is expected to play for the first time since Dec. 17 when the Golden Knights visit the New York Islanders on Tuesday. Hill has missed 15 straight games and 22 of 23 since Dec. 2 with a lower-body injury.
