Golden Knights end homestand with comeback win over Blue Jackets

They didn’t need him.

The Knights ended their six-game homestand on a high note, rallying for a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at T-Mobile Arena.

Mattias Janmark scored his first goal of the season with 6:07 remaining to help the Knights finish 5-1 on the homestand.

“It’s been kind of a struggle to start the year in a lot of ways,” Janmark said. “It’s been trending a little better the last week or so. It’s for sure nice to get on the board, but every night you just want to keep trying to do the right things and contribute to the team winning. Especially now with all the injuries we have.”

Reilly Smith ignited the announced crowd of 18,313 when he tied the game 2-2 with an unassisted short-handed goal at 4:45 of the third period.

Pacioretty, out since Oct. 14 with a lower-body fracture, participated in the morning skate but was not activated from injured reserve.

It’s unclear whether he will travel with the Knights for their two-game trip to St. Louis and Nashville that starts Monday.

“Character, resiliency, our team’s shown it,” Smith said. “There’s so much adversity. I don’t think I’ve ever played in a season like this. But when you’re picking up wins, it makes it a lot easier.”

The Knights trailed 2-0 after the first period but came alive in the second.

Keegan Kolesar scored his first goal of the season at 7:07 of the period to cut Columbus’ lead in half and start the comeback. Kolesar finished with a goal and an assist.

Gustav Nyquist and Alexandre Texier scored in the first period for Columbus, which had its three-game road winning streak snapped.

“I mean, 5-1 on a homestand when you have a full roster and you’re fully healthy is a great run,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s just been one thing after another, but the group’s resilience, and I’ve talked about this before, never wavered.”

Here are three takeaways from the game:

1. Bad challenge

The Knights caught a break before Janmark’s winning goal when the linesman missed an offside.

Janmark was in the offensive zone at the time he gained possession, but play was allowed to continue and he skated the puck back into the neutral zone. That nullified any offside, and Janmark sent the puck back into the zone to start the Knights’ forecheck.

Seconds later, Janmark was at the side of the net and put a backhand in after controlling Nic Hague’s shot that went wide. The Blue Jackets unsuccessfully challenged for offside.

“It was clearly offside, but as soon as that wasn’t called and we cleared the zone with the puck, it came out over the blue, and that resets everything,” DeBoer said. “When we saw it, we were pretty confident we were going to win that.”

The NHL Situation Room admitted Janmark was offside in the build-up, but that portion of the play was not reviewable. Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen also said he knew he wasn’t going to win the challenge.

“It’s offside, but as soon as that puck exits, it’s a whole new play,” Larsen said. “I was frustrated, I couldn’t help myself. … I know the rule. I messed it up. That’s where emotion gets the best of you, and that’s on me.”

2. Trading places

On the second day of the 2017 draft, the Knights traded the No. 45 selection to Columbus for Kolesar.

The Blue Jackets used that pick to take Texier.

Those two players crossed paths for the first time in the NHL, and each made an impact for his club.

Texier blew past Knights winger Mark Stone along the wall and flipped a shot past goalie Laurent Brossoit for a short-handed goal at 8:42 of the first period.

Kolesar answered at 7:07 of the second, when Jake Leschyshyn pounced on a turnover behind the net and fed Kolesar in front for the goal.

It was the Knights’ first goal against Columbus since Nov. 5, 2019, when Smith scored the second of his two goals in the second period of a 2-1 win.

“Just another game for me,” Kolesar said. “Obviously want to win, so more excited to just get closer to tying up the game.”

3. Mystery lineup

Forward Brett Howden was not on the ice during warmups and appeared to be a scratch, with Saturday call-up Daniil Miromanov, a defenseman, taking line rushes at right wing on the fourth line.

But when the official lineup was released, Howden was active and Miromanov watched in street clothes.

Howden had to take a few extra laps before the Hockey Fights Cancer Night ceremony and the national anthem in an effort to get loose.

It was later learned Howden had a false positive COVID-19 test result before the game and wasn’t cleared until he had two negative tests.

“We obviously didn’t like our start,” DeBoer said. “We were dealing with a little bit of that as a distraction, I think that was a piece of it, but our second periods have been really good, and that’s allowed us to crawl back in games.”

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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.