After giving up the first goal of the game to the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins’ Phil Kessel, , the Vegas Golden Knights responded with goals from Shea Theodore, Max Pacioretty, Oscar Lindberg to take a 3-1 lead to the dressing room at the first intermission.
The Knights were not done scoring as they tacked on four more over the final 40 minutes of play in a 703 win over the Pens.
Jonathan Marchessault added a hat trick for Vegas in the win.
“It’s definitely hard sometimes trying to make the right plays at the right time,” Marchessault said. “It’s the way it goes sometimes. You just have to battle through it. I was happy to get rewarded.”
Vegas improved to 29-17-4.
“They’ve been pressing for goals for the last little while, and to see [Marchessault] get three tonight and for Karlsson to get one, that’s huge for our club,” Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant said. “They’ve played really good hockey and they played really good defensive hockey … but when those guys are scoring and we get everybody else scoring and chipping in it’s going to be big for our team.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 34 saves and one assist in the win.
“I wanted to do well, obviously,” Fleury said. “I want to win any given night, but it feels weird when you play against coaches and players that I’ve played with.”
The Pens dropped to 26-16-6.
“We gave up three breakaways and two 2-on-1s in the first 20 minutes of the game,” Pens head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We just didn’t play the game smart.”
Dominik Simon and Sidney Crosby were the other goal scorers for the Pens.
“Tonight was definitely special. When we play Pittsburgh, it’s always special for us because it’s the best player *Fleury) on our team playing against his old team. We definitely wanted to show up for him,” Marchessault said.
William Karlsson also scored for the Knights.
[WATCH: All Penguins vs. Golden Knights highlights]
Casey DeSmith made 28 saves in the loss.
“We just made some mistakes, and early is probably when we made the most mistakes,” Crosby said. “We found a way to get back in in the second. I thought we did a lot of good things.”
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