LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Jack Eichel scored twice to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
Kaedan Korczak also scored for the Golden Knights, and Tomas Hertl added an empty-net goal with seven seconds left.
Vegas starting goalie Adin Hill stopped eight of 10 shots in the first period, but did not return for the second period because of a lower-body injury. Akira Schmid stopped the 19 shots he faced in relief.
Eichel has four goals and five assists, and Mark Stone has six assists in four games for Vegas.
Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman scored for the Flames. Dustin Wolf made 26 saves in the loss.
Eichel scored his second goal of the game at 6:38 of the third period, driving past Flames defenseman Daniil Miromanov and shoveling the puck past Wolf.
Korczak pulled Vegas even at 4:11 of third with a shot that beat Wolf on the stick side.
Eichel cut a two-goal deficit to one midway through the second period when he poked his own rebound past Wolf.
Coleman made it 2-0 for the Flames at 12:10 of the opening period and beat Hill on the glove side.
Backlund and Flames defenseman Mackenzie Weegar combined on a give-and-go on the first goal of the game at 7:32. Weegar faked a shot and dished to Backlund, who snapped a sharp-angled shot past Hill.
The Flames have been outscored 9-2 in third periods to start this season.
The Aces are preparing for a championship parade Friday that few outside the organization saw coming just a couple of months ago.
At the forefront will be the coach who made it happen — again.
In leading Las Vegas to its third championship in four years, Becky Hammon put herself on the select list of all-time WNBA coaching greats.
Her three titles are just behind record holders Van Chancellor and Cheryl Reeve. Chancellor coached the Houston Comets to the league’s first four championships, and Reeve led the Minnesota Lynx to four titles over seven seasons. Hammon is tied with former Aces coach Bill Laimbeer, who captured his championships with the Detroit Shock.
Give Hammon a shot at a title and she is nearly unbeatable.
She owns the best record in WNBA Finals (10-2), and her 9-1 record in playoff series tops even Phil Jackson’s NBA mark of 86.2%.
“The thing I always trust, we’re not going to get outcoached,” guard Jewell Loyd said.
That was proven in the finals.
Hammon threw a zone defense at Phoenix in the second half of Game 1 even though her team hadn’t worked on it. The surprise switch confused the Mercury, and the Aces rallied for the victory. A win secured when Kiah Stokes was put in for the final 14 seconds — her only 14 seconds that game — for defensive purposes to deny the Mercury a quality final shot.