Couturier, Flyers hand first-place Vegas just its 4th home loss of year

LAS VEGAS » Sean Couturier had a goal and two assists to help the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 on Sunday.

With a loud contingent donning orange among the 18,220 in attendance, the Flyers became just the fourth team to defeat Vegas at T Mobile Arena.

Andrew Macdonald, Claude Giroux and Radko Gudas also scored for Philadelphia, which improved to 20-8-2 since Dec. 4 — when it ended a 10game winless streak with a 5-2 victory at Calgary. One night after coming off the bench to stop five shootout attempts and help the Flyers to a 4-3 win in Arizona, goalie Michal Neuvirth stopped 14 shots to improve to 7-7-2 on the year.

Brayden McNabb scored the lone goal for Vegas, which is 19-4-2 at home this season. Marc-Andre Fleury, now 27-18-2 lifetime versus Philadelphia, finished with 38 saves.

McNabb opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season at 11:22 of the first period, when he took a pass from Reilly Smith and skated in to beat Neuvirth with a blistering wrist shot on the goalie’s glove side to give Vegas a 1-0 lead.

After some nifty passing in the attacking zone, Couturier one-timed a pass from Travis Konecny through the legs of Fleury, tying the game at 1-all with a little more than 2 minutes left in the first. It was Couturier’s team-leading 28th goal of the season.

The Flyers scored twice late in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. First it was Couturier firing a shot that Macdonald deflected past Fleury with 2:52 remaining. Then, with 5.8 seconds left, Fleury’s poke check turned into a pass for Giroux, who scored his 199th career goal.

Gudas’ empty-netter with 2:26 to go provided the final margin.

The Golden Knights, who have 12 power-play goals in their last 10 games, had registered a goal with a man advantage in each of their previous nine games, which tied for the longest power-play goal streak this season. Vegas was 0-for-1 with their only power-play opportunity against the Flyers. NOTES » Philadelphia’s Jake Voracek saw his eight-game scoring streak come to an end . ... With his first-period goal, Couturier needs just three goals to reach 100 in his career . ... Vegas’ Deryk Engelland is one point away from tying a career-high in points for a season with 17 . ... William Karlsson, who assisted on McNabb’s goal, is two points shy of 100 career points.

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Philadelphia: Hosts New Jersey on Tuesday.