Jack Eichel scored twice to highlight a four-goal first period and Adin Hill made 26 saves to help lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
It was the 32nd multi-goal game of Eichel’s career. William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault each had a goal and an assist, Alex Pietrangelo had two assists and Chandler Stephenson also scored a goal for the Golden Knights, who snapped a five-game losing streak to Winnipeg dating back to a 5-0 victory on March 21, 2019.
The four goals in the first period tied for the second most in any period in franchise history.
Neal Pionk had a goal and an assist and Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored for Winnipeg, which was playing its third road game in four nights. The Jets were on the second half of a back-to-back set that began with an emotional 4-3 overtime win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday in Denver.
David Rittich, making his Jets debut, finished with 27 saves.
Eichel gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at the 4:23 mark of the opening period when he took a Reilly Smith pass in the slot at the end of a three-on-one rush and fired a wrist shot past Rittich’s glove side.
Less than two minutes later, Karlsson made it 2-0 with his second goal of the season, shoveling Michael Amadio’s behind-the-net pass into the low slot past Rittich’s blocker side.
Stephenson increased the lead to 3-0 at the 10:07 mark when his centering pass from the left corner caromed in off the back of the skate of Winnipeg defenseman Brenden Dillon for his first goal of the season.
Shortly after Jets left winger Axel Jonsson-Fjallby fired a shot that went off Hill’s glove and then the right post, Eichel made it 4-0 with an assist from Rittich. The Jets goalie passed the puck directly to Eichel at the bottom of the right circle, where the Vegas center quickly fired a spinning wrist shot past Rittich’s glove side for his third goal of the season.
Winnipeg cut it to 4-1 midway through the second period when Hill gave up a long rebound of a Pionk shot to Dubois in the center of the left circle and Dubois slapped in a shot past Hill’s stick side.
Pionk, who scored the overtime winner against Colorado, made it 4-2 at the 10:34 mark of the third period when Josh Morrissey’s crossing pass caromed in off his skate and under the right pad of Hill for his third goal in two games.
Eichel missed a chance for the hat trick with 2:24 to go when his shot from just outside the blue line toward an empty net went wide. Marchessault sealed the win with an empty-netter with 21.9 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
