Barbashev scores twice, Golden Knights defeat Rangers

LAS VEGAS -- Ivan Barbashev scored twice, and Logan Thompson made 29 saves for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 5-1 win against the New York Rangers at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

Jonathan Marchessault and Brett Howden each had a goal and an assist, and Nicolas Roy and Mark Stone each had two assists for Vegas (26-14-5), which has won three of its past four games.

“One hand’s feeding the other, so to speak,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “The goalie is excited because he knows he doesn't have to save every puck and could still get a win. Our guys are excited because they like, ‘You know, we're not on our game early. We got on to it and our goalie’s bailed us out. Now we're going to go score for him. That's exactly what's happened. That’s the formula.”

Mika Zibanejad scored for New York (28-14-2), which has lost five of seven (2-4-1). Igor Shesterkin made 21 saves.

“Our guys started with the right intentions and played hard the whole night,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “I hate the score. The game just kind of unraveled in the wrong way for us. … We were chasing the game a little bit. Five-on-5, we just couldn't get anything to drop for us. I thought we had a lot of looks and opportunities. We just couldn't get going.”

Marchessault gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 11:35 of the first period when he snuck a shot underneath Shesterkin’s arm.

“I was just trying to play the right way every night, you know, give a chance to my team to win a hockey game, and it's just fun to get on the board there for my teammates there,” Marchessault said.

Barbashev made it 2-0 at 14:48 after a video review supported the call on the ice that Roy’s feed went off Barbashev’s skate and entered the net while he was in the process of stopping. Barbashev was credited with his 10th goal of the season.

Barbashev extended the lead to 3-0 on a power play at 17:59 of the second period, one-timing a pass from Stone in the slot.

Keegan Kolesar scored 25 seconds later at 18:24, redirecting a Kaedan Korczak wrist shot from the left circle to make it 4-0.

Zibanejad cut it to 4-1 with a power-play goal 40 seconds into the third period.

“There's things that we do want to improve on,” Zibanejad said. “I'm happy that we have things to improve. We put ourselves in a spot to keep pushing in the second half of the season, but if things improve, that's a good [reason] for us to just keep going.”

Howden scored a short-handed, empty-net goal at 18:32 for the 5-1 final.

Vegas was without several key players, including forwards Jack Eichel (lower-body injury), William Karlsson (lower body) and Chandler Stephenson (illness), and defenseman Shea Theodore (upper body).

“That type of thing can snowball for your team, and you need secondary scoring, especially with a few of your top guys missing,” Cassidy said. “You're going to need some other guys to chip in and keep it out your net. That's what happened [the] last two games; other guys chipped in. We kept it out of our net.

“… It's a formula that's going to be required here probably until we get a little healthier, and that's OK. Other guys, hopefully, relish the responsibility.”

NOTES: Golden Knights forward Sheldon Rempal had two shots on goal in 7:18 after being recalled from Henderson of the American Hockey League; forward Michael Amadio also missed the game with an upper-body injury. … It was Marchessault’s 22nd game-opening goal with Vegas, tied with William Karlsson for the most in franchise history. … Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb was plus-3 and blocked three shots in 17:25 of ice time. … Rangers forwards Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere were each minus-3.