In Las Vegas, Jack Eichel hit for a hat trick on Sunday, and the Golden K Nights lanced the Columbus Blue Jackets, 7-2..
“Puck’s just going in,” said Eichel. “I’m just trying to shoot it a little bit. Nice to see it go in.”
Jiri Patera made 35 saves in the Knights win.
“[Patera] was excellent,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We gave up too much again tonight in terms of good chances. … Our third period was good for the most part. We didn’t get too far away from it. We wanted to check well and still play the right way and try to extend the lead, if possible.”
Phil Kessel scored in the first period to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead.
Vegas improved to 43-21-6.
Kirill Marchenko and Liam Foudy were the Columbus strikers.
Marchenko scored in the second period to tie the game, 1-1, and Foudy scored late in the third for the 7-2 final
Columbus dropped to 21-41-7.
“[Vegas] took advantage of their chances. Their goalie was pretty good,” Associate coach Pascal Vincent said. “That’s the difference between a good team and a team in our position. We need to sustain that pace for 60 minutes. We’re going to get there. Just right now, that’s not the case. We had our moments, but we need to sustain it for 60 minutes.”
Eichel scored midway through the second stanza to give Vegas a 2-1 lead.
“I was coming off the wall there, trying to use the [defense] as a screen a little bit,” Eichel said. “I saw my two linemates (Ivan Barbashev and Jonathan Marchessault) going to the net. I knew the [defense] needed to get off. We needed a puck deep, so I put one on net. Fortunate to see it go in.”
Pavel Dorofeyev pushed the lead to 3-1 in the second, and Zach Whitecloud scored for a 4-1 advantage to Vegas at 16:24.
“[Dorofeyev] is doing a lot right,” Cassidy said. “… There’s a lot to like. Again, small sample size, but he’s playing to keep his job. It shows out there. He wants the job and he’s not going to let someone take it from him. That’s what you want.”
Eichel hit for his second of the night 33 later and a 5-1 lead.
In the third, Vegas continued the pressure, resulting in strikes from Paul Cotter, and Eichel’s hat trick goal for a 7-1 lead.by 11:27.
Vegas has 12 games remaining on the schedule, 10 against playoff contenders.
“It’ll be a tough stretch. We’re playing a lot of teams twice,” Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith said. “Those can be pretty tricky because you split those games a lot. We got to make sure we’re picking up as many points as we can. A lot of those teams are chasing us. We have to make sure we come out with a good concerted effort to make teams beat us.”
Daniil Tarasov got the start for the Blue Jackets and surrendered five goals, making 15 saves before getting the hook at 16:57 of the second.
Michael Hutchinson made 10 saves in a mop up role.
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