Phil Kessel and Reilly Smith scored first-period goals off giveaways as the Vegas Golden Knights kicked off their three-game Canadian road trip with a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.
Kessel and Smith took advantage of a pair of Canucks miscues to set the tone early as the Golden Knights (44-21-6, 94 points) moved two points ahead of the second-place Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division.
Teddy Blueger and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored and William Karlsson had two assists for the Golden Knights, who have won nine of their past 11 games. Jonathan Quick turned aside 31 shots.
J.T. Miller notched two goals and an assist, Phillip Di Giuseppe also scored and Quinn Hughes had two assists for the Canucks, who have lost just two of their past nine games.
Goaltender Thatcher Demko made 23 saves and is now 6-3-0 for Vancouver (31-34-5, 67 points) since coming back from injury.
Kessel scored an unassisted goal at 3:01 on Vegas’ first shot of the game after stealing the puck at the Vancouver blue line from defenseman Ethan Bear.
Vegas capitalized on another turnover for its second goal at 12:11 of the first. Brock Boeser mishandled the puck behind the net and Karlsson ended up with it before feeding it out front to Smith for the one-timer.
Miller scored on a penalty shot at 7:57 of the second to cut the Vegas lead to 2-1. Miller came down the left side, cut across the crease and lifted a backhand just under the crossbar. It was his fifth short-handed goal of the season.
Blueger restored the Knights’ two-goal lead at 10:22 of the second to make it 3-1.
Miller scored his second goal of the night on the power play at 12:42 to make it 3-2.
Dorofeyev then tipped a shot over the left shoulder of Demko with 2:41 left in the second to give Vegas a 4-2 lead.
Di Giuseppe made it 4-3 at 11:43 of the third, but the Canucks’ rally fell short.
–Field Level Media
