The Vegas Golden Knights (6-1-3) returned to the win column thanks to a 6-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes (6-3-0) Tuesday night at Lenovo Center.
Vegas completed the sweep of the season series against Carolina after defeating the Hurricanes 4-1 last week in Las Vegas.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak and allowed the Golden Knights to secure three of a possible six points (1-1-1) on their three-game road trip after falling 3-0 to Florida and 2-1 in overtime to Tampa Bay.
Jack Eichel scored two goals and added an assist to extend his league-leading point total to 19, while Pavel Dorofeyev lit the lamp twice to add to his league-leading total of nine goals on the year. Vegas also got goals from Brett Howden and Tomas Hertl; Ivan Barbashev and Mitch Marner both had multi-point efforts.
The Hurricanes struck first, however, as Andrei Svechnikov made it 1-0 on the power play at 3:46 of the opening frame. It took just two seconds for the Carolina man-advantage to strike after Jeremy Lauzon was whistled for his third penalty in the last three games.
But the Golden Knights evened things up less than three minutes later on Dorofeyev’s first of the game. His backhand was the club’s first shot of the night (at 6:27) but marked a shift in momentum after a very rough opening five minutes for the road team.
Dorofeyev scored his second of the frame in the final two minutes of the first period, connecting on a power-play one-timer to give Vegas its first lead. It was Vegas’ first power-play goal without Mark Stone.
But the Hurricanes responded with the next two goals, the first of which came midway through the second period off the stick of Jordan Martinook, who capitalized on a breakaway after Eichel turned the puck over at the blue line.
Marner had a glorious chance to give Vegas the lead after two periods but was stonewalled by Frederik Andersen.
The Hurricanes then made it a 3-2 game 2:31 into the final frame on Logan Stankoven’s third of the season. Stankoven toe-dragged around the Vegas defender and then beat Akira Schmid glove-side.
But Vegas potted the next four to close out the win, starting with Howden’s second of the year 6:10 into the third period. It was an excellent individual effort by Howden, who took full advantage of a great setup by Cole Reinhardt.
Eichel scored what eventually became the game-winner with just under five minutes in the game, beating Andersen on a breakaway of his own to give Vegas its second lead of the night.
But unlike earlier in the game, the Golden Knights were able to get the next goal. Once again, it was Eichel, who scored off a fantastic behind-the-net pass from Barbashev with 2:24 left in regulation.
Hertl potted the empty-net goal at 19:38 to seal the win.
The Golden Knights bounced back with a much-needed offensive effort after two underwhelming performances on the road. The 6-3 win in Carolina doesn’t erase the struggles in Florida, but it was a strong finish to an otherwise-bumpy road trip.
After this three-game set, one thing is clear: where Eichel and Dorofeyev go, the Vegas offense goes. The two players lead the league in scoring (Eichel with 19 points and Dorofeyev with nine goals) and have been fantastic so far this season. Dorofeyev’s two-goal night allowed him to set a franchise record for the first player to reach nine goals in the first 10 games of the season.
Another key element of the win was the fourth line’s performance, as Howden getting shifted to center on that line really seemed to open things up for Vegas. The fourth-line goal kicked things off in the third period, which turned out to be a four-goal frame for the Golden Knights. The pass by Reinhardt on the goal was impressive, and Reinhardt had also hit the post in the second period. It was arguably the fourth line’s most effective game of the year, which is not insignificant for a Vegas team that will need more depth scoring moving forward.
Shea Theodore also had a solid game, delivering a strong response to his giveaway in overtime against the Lightning.
Schmid stopped 21 of 24 shots for an .875 save percentage to help Vegas collect two points against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. He is now 5-1-0 on the season.
Next up for Vegas is a six-game homestand, which will start Friday afternoon against the Colorado Avalanche for the annual Nevada Day celebration.