Chicago wins first over Golden Knights

In Las Vegas Thursday night, the Golden Knights broke out to a 2-0 lead and then, as so many teams do, sat back to admire the effort.

In so doing, the visiting Chicago Blackhawks posted five straight goals before the Knights answered back, but it was too little too late as the Hawks posted a 5-3 win.

It was their first win over the Vegas franchise.

Corey Crawford made 39 saves in the win.

“That was a fast game,” Crawford said. “They’re a really good hockey team. Obviously they were going to be hungry. It seems like they always come out hard in the first period there, but we didn’t fold. We just kept playing.”

William Karlsson and William Carrier scored for the early 2-0 Vegas lead.

“I think we got caught sleeping a few times,” Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. “We didn’t change from our game plan. Chicago’s a good team … but for them to get, what, three or four breakaways in the first half of the game? I think it’s people sleeping back there and not being aware.”

Five different skaters had strikes for the Blackhawks.

Patrick Kane, Calvin de Haan, Dylan Strome and Kirby Dach scored in the Chicago flurry.

“It seems like the floodgates have opened a little bit,” de Haan said. “We’re scoring a lot of goals now, but I think the biggest part for us is our goaltending is giving us a chance to win every night. That instills confidence in everyone on the ice and on the bench. We’ve been opportunistic, I think, but at the same time we’re creating a lot of chances and we’re capitalizing on them.”

Erik Gustafsson also scored for Chicago.

“Hockey’s a weird game and you can feel the momentum shift on the ice sometimes,” de Haan said. “It took the wind out of their sails pretty quickly. We played a good second period for the rest of the period, I thought. It was definitely a big part in the game.”

Vegas is 0-3-1 in their last four.

“We had some chances. We had some good looks, but it’s the same thing; we’re not capitalizing on our chances and that leads to chances back the other way,” Golden Knights forward Mark Stone said. “We’re getting frustrated when we don’t score and we just started cheating a bit.”

Vegas’ Nate Schmidt added a lipstick goal with one minute left on the clock.

[WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Golden Knights highlights]

Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves in the loss.

“We came out playing the right way. It’s just frustrating,” Fleury said. “We’ve been losing a lot lately, and at home. We believe in each other and we believe in our team. Between us in the room, we have confidence in our team. We shouldn’t be having ups and downs like we have all year. We have to find consistency in our game and find ways to get points, get wins.”