Golden Knights roll to seventh straight win
William Karlsson celebrates after scoring a hat trick, the first for the expansion Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
William Karlsson had the first hat trick in Vegas history and added an assist to help the streaking Golden Knights beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 on Sunday in Las Vegas.
The Western Conferenceleading Golden Knights have won seven straight and have earned points in 12 consecutive games, both NHL records for a first-year team. An NHL-best 11-1-1 in December, the Golden Knights are 16-2-1 at home and 26-9-2 overall.
Karlsson pushed his team-leading goals total to 20. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Erik Haula and Jonathan Marchessault also scored, and Malcolm Subban made 19 saves.
Auston Matthews scored twice for Toronto, Patrick Marleau added a goal, and Frederik Anderson stopped 25 shots.
Toronto is 11-7-1 against the Western Conference and 8-5-0 against Pacific Division teams. The Maple Leafs , who played their 10th road game of the month, finished a five-game trip 2-2-1.
Moments after Toronto defenseman Martin Marincin blocked Alex Tuch to thwart a 2-on-1, Bellemare’s backhand slipped under Anderson’s glove to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the game. Two minutes later, Vegas defenseman Deryk Engelland ignited a 2-on-1 break and fed the puck to Reilly Smith, who found Karlsson for a one-timer. Haula, playing in his 399th career game, made it 3-0 when he grabbed a loose puck at the red line and fired a wrist shot over Anderson’s glove.
Marleau got Toronto on the board in the second period, when he took Connor Brown’s pass in front of the crease and spun around to slip it past Subban.
Vegas went back up by three when Marchessault grabbed an errant pass that bounced off the referee’s skate and fed Karlsson for his second of the game.
Matthews scored his 16th and 17th goals, connecting with less than a minute left in the second period and again 27 seconds into the third.
Vegas responded, however, when defenseman Shea Theodore entered the zone and found Karlsson, who assisted Marchessault perfectly to put the Knights back up 5-3.
JETS 5, OILERS 0 >> Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves for his third shutout of the season, and Kyle Connor and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist for Winnipeg. The Jets have won three in a row and are 5-1-1 in their last seven games. The Oilers have dropped three straight.
RED WINGS 4, PENGUINS 1 >> Gus Nyquist scored twice, Jimmy Howard made 37 saves, and Detroit beat Pittsburgh. Dylan Larkin and Frans Nielsen also scored for Detroit. Evgeni Malkin got his fifth goal in seven games for the Penguins. LIGHTNING 5, BLUE JACKETS 0>> Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson scored twice, and Andre Vasilevskiy stopped 21 shots for his ninth career shutout. Johnson’s secondperiod goals extended his point streak to 12 games, tied for the longest in the league this season. He’s got eight goals and 10 assists in that stretch.
FLAMES 4, BLACKHAWKS 3 >> Mark Giordano scored 52 seconds into overtime to lift Calgary over Chicago. The Flames salvaged the win after Chicago’s Brandon Saad tied it with 1:46 left in the third. The Blackhawks extended their points streak against Calgary to 16 games (10-0-6), a streak that dates to Feb. 2, 2013.