LAS VEGAS — Some nights, you need your goaltender to steal a game for you.

Wednesday was one of those nights. For both the Golden Knights and the New Jersey Devils.

The Knights were without two key performers — center Jack Eichel was under the weather while defenseman Shea Theodore had an upper-body injury. The Devils, who have been low-wattage offensively for most of December and have dropped six of eight matches in the month, were missing forward Timo Meier and are still without Jack Hughes.

So who would prevail? Carter Hart in the Vegas net? Or Jake Allen for Jersey?

For a while, it looked like Hart would be the thief. Then it seemed as though Allen would be the star. Ultimately, however, Allen would deliver as he stopped all but one of the 38 of the shots he faced as the Devils prevailed 2-1 in a shootout at T-Mobile Arena.

“I saw a slow start, but I saw that coming with us coming off a long road trip,” Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I saw Carter Hart make some big saves to keep us in it and I saw Jake Allen make some big saves to balance Carter.

“At the end of the day, you go to overtime. Each team had a good look. We were around it — hit three posts. So we’ll take the point. There’s some things to correct and get ready for Calgary (Saturday).”

Credit New Jersey for playing the near-perfect road game. The Devils bottled up play in the neutral zone, won enough puck battles along the boards, kept the Knights’ high-danger chances to a handful and got a nice move by Connor Brown to beat Hart in the second period for the goal that kept them in front until 4:10 was left to play.

That’s when Pavel Dorofeyev got the Knights even with his ninth power play goal of the season, 14th overall. Neither team could settle it in overtime despite Vegas having a power play with Dawson Mercer in the box for hooking Mark Stone.

And as was the case on Long Island last week, the Knights failed to score in the shootout as Allen denied Dorofeyev, Stone and Mitch Marner.

With Eichel unavailable, it figured to be a mish-mash of line combinations for Cassidy. He had Tomas Hertl with Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev. He had Reilly Smith at center with Brandon Saad and Braeden Bowman only to move Marner to center in the third period.

Understandably, asking Smith, who has played his entire career on the wing to try and dominate in the middle is a big ask and with William Karlsson still out indefinitely (Cassidy called him week-to-week at the morning skate) and no Eichel, the Knights were suddenly thin at center.

“This is new to us as Jack hadn’t missed a game all year,” Cassidy said. “Karly has missed a bunch so now you’ve got two center men out. You’re trying to move pieces around and they (Smith and Marner) have been around. At the end of the day the choice is, ‘Do you want to play center or do you not want to play?’ We’re trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and I don’t think it was a big issue tonight.

“If you look at their goal, we turned the puck over on a breakout. We’re gonna keep mixing it around if Jack misses time. I don’t know how much time he’s going to miss.”

Still, the Knights generated some chances. Stone had a couple of great looks, including one late in overtime that hit the right post after having eluded Allen. Saad had a shorthanded breakaway attempt in the second period which Allen thwarted. And Hertl was denied from the slot late in the second.

As for Hart, he certainly gave his team a chance as he faced 33 shots and stopped all but Brown’s second-period goal. He made one mistake at the end as Jesper Bratt beat him in the second round of the shootout for what was ultimately the game winner.

The fact that the Knights continue to play these close games — Wednesday was their 14th time going overtime or to a shootout this year, can perhaps be attributed to the fact they need to generate more offense during regulation. Even with Eichel and Theodore in the lineup, Vegas isn’t tilting out the scoreboard.

“We can’t change our game in December all of a sudden,” Cassidy said when asked if there was a quick fix to boost the attack. “What are can change is our forecheck mentality early.

“You have to understand it’s still a work in progress. Teams still have plenty of gas left in the tank so their gaps are good. You have to try and build a good rush game and try and get behind them and hammer away at it.”