Vegas's bet on Tortorella looking good as Knights find their swagger

The Oilers begin the final week of the NHL regular season in first place in the Pacific Division. The Panthers won't be part of the final series.

EDMONTON — Betting on John Tortorella as a late-season replacement for head coach continues to pay off for the Vegas Golden Knights.

Jack Eichel had three assists as the Golden Knights came away with a huge 5-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

Brett Howden and Jeremy Lauzon each had a goal and an assist and Colton Sissons, Mark Stone and Rasmus Andersson also scored for the Golden Knights (35-26-16) who have won all three games since Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy on the bench and are 3-0-2 in their last five contests.

“I think we’re buying into the mindset of just playing fast hockey, checking, moving our feet and playing teams really tight and aggressively and getting up in people’s faces,” Sissons said. “We’re kind of building our confidence back and our swag in that department, so it’s been good.”

Vegas moved one point back of both Edmonton and Anaheim, who share first place in the Pacific Division standings.

“I think we’re consistently trying to play fast, certainly playing north. We had a lot of good minutes tonight,” said Tortorella, who joined Cassidy and Gerard Gallant as the third coach in Golden Knights history to record wins in their first three games as Vegas bench boss.

“I thought (goalie Carter Hart) was really good. We had some hiccups here and there, but I thought we stayed within ourselves and kept playing.”

Hart recorded 31 saves to earn the win for Vegas.

“He just looks solid,” Tortorella said. “I know nothing about goaltending, but you can tell when a goaltender feels big. He looked big to me, he just feels solid and made some key saves at key times. He made a couple of saves on the power play, so it was good.”

Lauzon hadn’t scored in 112 games, stretching back to Feb. 22, 2024.

“It was a great moment. I was waiting for it for a long time,” Lauzon said. “I thought our team played unbelievable tonight and it’s a huge win for our club.”

Ivan Barbashev had two assists to give him 200 in his career.

Eichel assisted on the opening goal to help him reach his second-straight 80-point season. No other player has reached the mark for the Vegas franchise. Eichel also recorded his 95th multi-point game, tying Jonathan Marchessault for the second most in franchise history behind Mark Stone with 102, and his 25th three-point game with Vegas, tying Marchessault for second with the franchise, again behind Stone (31).

The Golden Knights were in need of a win against the Oilers, having lost all three of their previous games to them this season and nine of their last 10 overall, including falling in five games to Edmonton in the second round of last year’s playoffs.

“Everybody has bought in,” Sissons said. “We knew the level of urgency that we needed to come out and play a tough game on the road. It’s a tough place to play, against a rival and I think everybody showed up and I’m proud of the effort.”

The Vegas win also represented Edmonton’s first loss in regulation time to a divisional rival at home this season, falling to 9-1-2.

Evan Bouchard scored the lone goal for the Oilers (39-29-9) who saw a season-high five-game win streak come to an end.

“They could have been, what, five points (back)? Now it’s one, right? So, yeah, pretty big,” said Oilers forward Trent Frederic, who retained his sense of humour when asked how the players reacted in the locker room after the loss.

“It’s just bickering back and forth, everyone telling everyone they make too much money. Which is all true. Sounds like a lot of people are jealous.”

Edmonton played without star forwards Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2026.

Shane Jones, The Canadian Press