The Vegas Golden Knights secured an important two points with a 5-1 win against the Boston Bruins Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena.
After a disastrous end to a 1-1-2 road trip, the Golden Knights responded with a solid win on home ice, defeating the visiting Bruins to sweep the season series for the first time in franchise history.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored the second hat trick of his career to reach the 30-goal milestone for the first time, lifting the Golden Knights to victory after Vegas lost four of its previous five games.
William Karlsson tallied an assist in his first game since Jan. 20. He was back on a line with Reilly Smith, with the two Original Misfits finishing the game with Brett Howden.
Adin Hill didn’t face a high shot volume but made timely saves, especially at the start of each frame. He finished the contest with 18 saves on 19 shots for a .947 save percentage.
It took a little while, but after a relatively evenly-matched opening frame that saw both teams trade chances, the Golden Knights took over in the second and then controlled the third.
Dorofeyev opened the scoring on the power play 9:19 into the second period.
With cotton swabs in his nose after taking a stick up high, Dorofeyev potted his second of the night with less than a minute left in the middle frame, beating Jeremy Swayman with another laser.
The Golden Knights tightened things up defensively in the second half of the frame, holding Boston to just four shots.
Vegas scored the next three in the third period to take a commanding 5-0 lead.
Howden started things off at 5:47, beating Swayman short-side after collecting a pass from Karlsson, who was noticeable in his first action in two months. Vegas had numbers, but Howden’s shot-first mentality paid off.
Dorofeyev completed the hat trick just past the midway mark of a very strong third period for the Golden Knights. It was a choppy play with a flubbed shot from the point, but Dorofeyev went to the net and cashed in on the rebound to make it a 4-0 game with his 30th of the season.
Ivan Barbashev scored his 20th of the year to make it 5-0 with 5:36 left in the third period.
Morgan Geekie ended Hill’s shutout bid with just over two minutes remaining, though Hill had no chance on the play after Geekie collected a cross-zone pass and was all alone in front.
But it was too little, too late for the visitors, and the Golden Knights closed out the win to improve to 25-7-3 on home ice. Vegas is now 40-20-8 on the season and holds a three-point lead over Edmonton with a game in hand.
The officiating throughout the game was questionable, particularly on a phantom tripping call on Mark Stone in the first period. Aside from that, however, Vegas remained disciplined and stayed out of the box, and the effort on the kill was excellent. The Golden Knights went 1-for-3 on the man-advantage.
Though he only faced 19 shots, Hill played a key role in holding off Boston’s early pushes in each frame. He has gone 6-1-1 in his last eight starts, posting a 1.75 goals-against average and .937 save percentage.
Though they didn’t connect, the Karlsson-Smith combination teamed up for an excellent scoring chance that was thwarted by an impressive save by Swayman. Reuniting those two makes Vegas’ lineup much more dynamic, and it should free up the top-line trio of Jack Eichel, Stone and Barbashev, which connected for a goal in the third period. Getting that trio going will be crucial for the Golden Knights down the stretch, and Karlsson’s presence has already had an effect.
There was an injury scare when Eichel left the game in the second period after blocking a shot to make up for a turnover, but he returned relatively quickly. He finished the night with two helpers to reach 82 points on the year, which ties a career high.
Brandon Saad also tallied two assists, and Tanner Pearson had three individual scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick.
The Golden Knights have another back-to-back over the weekend, with a rematch against Detroit on Saturday followed by a duel against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday. The Golden Knights will then hit the road once more to take on Minnesota, Chicago and Nashville to close out the month.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.