Vegas double down on Canucks, 6-3 Vegas push point streak to seven

On The Strip, the Vegas Golden Knights hit for four goals in the opening stanza on Tuesday night en route to a 6-3 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks.

Six different skaters scored for the Knights.

“I loved the way we played. I loved the way we started and battled the whole night,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Full value, I felt. I’m going to watch it again tomorrow, and it’ll probably back that up. I’ll see a lot of good stuff.”

Logan Thompson made 27 saves in the win.

Vegas improved to 42-25-8, pushing their active point streak to seven games.

The Knights got off to a 2-0 lead before the Canucks found some kind of footing.

Anthony Mantha staked Vegas to a 1-0 lead at 1:37 of the first,  scoring off a rebound of a failed breakaway effort by Pavel Dorofeyev.

Jonathan Marchessault pushed the lead to 2-0 at 6:23, scoring off a wrister from the right circle.

Nils Hoglander cut the gap to 2-1 when he struck midway through the first, scoring off an errant puck at the crease.

Vegas replied 20 seconds later with a marker from Jack Eichel for a 3-1 lead, scoring off an odd man rush.

Noah Hanifin finished the first period scoring when he connected at 14:42 off the power play for a 4-1 advantage to Vegas headed to the middle frame.

“It was good to finally get one,” Hanifin said. “Great play by Jack, too, and a good screen by [Ivan Barbashev]. Just trying to get pucks on net and shoot it. Fortunately, it was nice to get one in front of the home crowd.”

The Canucks dropped to 46-21-8 off their third loss in four contests.

“We had our moments in the second and third,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “But obviously that first put us behind the eight ball.”

In the second period, William Karlsson hit off another power play for Vegas to push the lead to 5-1 at 1:46.

“Won the battle. ‘Petro’ got the shot off, I just finished it off,” Karlsson said. “Sometimes it’s that easy.”

Quinn Hughes scored the first of a double on th4e night at 6:13 to make the score 5-2.

“Not a good start,” Hughes said. “Everyone’s got to look inward here. We still got two games on the trip where we need the wins. We need to play better than what we did. Another opportunity tomorrow (at the Arizona Coyotes).”

Hughes collected his double at 1:41 of the third period, scoring through a gaggle of legs and sticks from the point.

Brett Howden padded the lead at 2:05 of the third with an easy tap in for the 6-3 final count on the scoreboard.

“When you score a goal, you get your mojo back right away,” Cassidy said. “Good for us for responding. They weren’t cheap goals, they were good goals, good plays, where we got back to it.”

Casey DeSmith made 24 saves in the loss.