BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erik Haula scored the decisive shootout goal and the Vegas Golden Knights set an NHL record for road victories by an expansion team following a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday
Golden Knights defenceman Deryk Engelland forced overtime by scoring the tying goal from a bad angle with 4:14 left in regulation. Marc-Andre Fleury won his 399th career game by stopping 31 shots through overtime.
After both teams traded shootout goals, Haula scored in the fifth round by driving up the right side and beating goalie Robin Lehner on the short side.
Justin Bailey scored for Buffalo. Lehner finished with 31 saves in the loss.
The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights improved their road record to 20-12-3, to beat the league record of 19 set by Anaheim in 1993-94, their inaugural season.
The Golden Knights, 44-19-5, have already set NHL expansion-team records for most overall wins, home wins, points and longest winning streak — an 8-0 run from Dec. 14 to Jan. 2.
To put Vegas’ road record into perspective, they became just the fifth team to win 20 this season. Of all NHL teams, only two had won 18 or more — Anaheim and Florida (18) — in their inaugural seasons.
The Golden Knights were in jeopardy of being shut out for the fourth time this season before Engelland tied the game. Getting the puck in the right circle, Engelland drove around the net to draw Lehner out of position. Coming out the other side, Engelland’s banked the puck in off Sabres defenceman Marco Scandella, who slid through the crease in a bid to block the pass attempt.
Lehner was particularly sharp in overtime.
He got his glove and left pad out to stop Jonathan Marchessault, who was set up alone in front in the opening 30 seconds of overtime. Then, with 1:20 left, Lehner slid across to his right to get a piece of Tomas Tatar’s tap-in attempt.
Bailey scored in his first game since being called up from Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in Rochester to fill in for Kyle Okposo, who sustained a concussion in a 4-3 shootout win at Ottawa on Thursday.
Benoit Pouliot set up the goal by outracing Vegas defenceman Shea Theodore to a loose puck at the left boards deep in the Golden Knights’ zone. Pouliot fed Bailey, who was driving into the zone alone up the middle.
Accepting the pass on his right forehand, Bailey caught Fleury leaning the wrong way before shifting the puck to the left and slipping it into the open side while going airborne after tripping over the goalie.
Fleury was coming off a 28-save outing in a 4-0 win at Detroit on Thursday and had his shutout streak snapped at 130 minutes and 40 seconds, dating to the second period of a 4-1 loss at Columbus on Tuesday.