Golden Knights use 4-goal 1st to defeat Kings, gain in Pacific

LAS VEGAS -- The Vegas Golden Knights scored four goals in the first period of a 5-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

Chandler Stephenson had a goal and two assists, and Phil Kessel and Ivan Barbashev each had a goal and an assist for Vegas (49-22-8), which is 7-1-2 in its past 10 games. Laurent Brossoit made 30 saves.
The Golden Knights moved three points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division and six ahead of the Kings.
"[Stephenson, Kessel and Barbashev are] on fire, actually," Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague said. "Every time they stepped on the ice, they scored."

Anze Kopitar and Vladislav Gavrikov scored for Los Angeles (45-24-10), which has lost two straight and four of six. Joonas Korpisalo allowed five goals on 15 shots before being replaced by Pheonix Copley, who stopped all 22 shots he faced in relief.
"We weren't ready to play. That was pretty evident," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "The other day I gave credit to the team as a whole. I said it was a team win. Everybody contributed. Tonight was a team loss. There were very few players that were engaged early. You can't play like that at this time of the year. We haven't had one of those periods in a long, long time. That won't be good enough for the rest of the year and playoffs. I think they know that."
Kessel gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead 2:54 of the first period when his wraparound attempt trickled in under the glove of Korpisalo.
The goal came 21 seconds after the Kings had a goal disallowed following a challenge for offside.
"Phil's still got it," Stephenson said. "He still makes plays. Still quick. He hangs on to it and let's you get open."
Barbashev made it 2-0 at 3:56 with a one-timer from below the right circle off a cross-ice pass from Stephenson, who won a puck battle with Blake Lizotte at the blue line.
"'Barby's' a great addition. He's been solid ever since he's come here," Stephenson said. "He gets a lot of pucks. He can finish and can make plays. He has a lot of patience. You know what you're getting from him. He gets a lot of pucks for you. That's huge."

Stephenson extended the lead to 3-0 at 6:07, beating Korpisalo five-hole with a backhand from in front.
Nicolas Roy then made it 4-0 at 11:23 of the first, tapping in a backdoor pass from Jack Eichel on a power play after Zack MacEwen was assessed a major for boarding.
Jonathan Marchessault pushed it to 5-0 at 1:02 of the second period, roofing a wrist shot over the left shoulder of Korpisalo from the right circle after Kopitar couldn't handle a pass from Adrian Kempe.
"It was one of those nights where there really were no passengers for us," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "It really shows in the end result."

Kopitar made it 5-1 with a power-play goal at 11:24, scoring from in front after Kempe's cross-ice pass pinballed to him off Brett Howden and Alex Pietrangelo.
Gavrikov cut it to 5-2 at 14:10 with a short-handed breakaway goal.
"In moments or situations of the game, there were some good things, some execution in certain situations," McLellan said. "You certainly look for the positives. Tonight's disappointing because we weren't engaged. We'll look for positives. [Special teams] were two of them."
NOTES: Eichel, who played his 100th game with the Golden Knights, has 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) during an eight-game point streak. … Brossoit is 5-0-3 with a 2.44 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in nine games (eight starts) this season.