The Vegas Gold Knights are snugly nestled in the third spot in the Pacific Division with nine points on either side of the standings.
On Sunday night, the Knights got two goals from Jonathan Marchessault en route to a 6-3 win over the visiting Edmonton Oilers.
“When you’re facing a team that’s on a back-to-back, sometimes they get a little worn down,” Marchessault said. “You’re just trying to play the right way, get the forecheck going, and that’s what we did.”
Malcolm Subban made 16 saves to pick up the win.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Kris Russell scored for Edmonton.
“That’s a team, they come at you in waves,” Oilers forward Sam Gagner said of the Golden Knights. “We did a good job when we were making them turn it over and playing in their end, but it wasn’t enough.”
Mark Stone, Cody Eakin Brayden McNabb, and Alex Tuch also scored for the Knights.
“You have to keep pressing forward,” Tuch said. “You can’t let them get back in it. They have a couple of superstars over there. … I thought our team played great tonight. We capitalized on some opportunities and had some good shots on goal.”
The Oilers dropped to 32-33-7 with the loss.
“I think they play at a tempo that’s hard to match,” Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock said. “They’re deep and they come at you with four lines. We negated them in our building (a 2-1 Edmonton win Dec. 1), but they were on top of us for most of the night.”
The Golden Knights improved to 40-27-5.
“It’s definitely been a tough stretch,” Marchessault said. “Obviously, tomorrow we have a much bigger opponent. San Jose’s a great team. Especially on a back-to-back, we just need to keep it simple and manage the puck.”
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Golden Knights highlights]
Mikko Koskinen made 28 saves in the loss.
“We did keep pushing a little bit after that early third-period goal,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “For the most part, I thought it was a pretty good game. They capitalized on our mistakes and breakdowns. That was the story.”
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