Golden Knights hold off Lightning for 5th straight win

LAS VEGAS -- Shea Theodore had a goal and two assists for the Vegas Golden Knights, who won their fifth straight game with a 5-4 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Theodore has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past three games and seven points (two goals, five assists) in seven games since returning to the lineup on Jan. 27 after missing 20 games with a lower-body injury.
"He can just manufacture stuff out of nothing," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Those are special players. Every team needs them. Especially someone on the back end, it makes you dangerous. We're a little more dangerous in the offensive zone (with him). He's got to be accounted for. I know he'll be on the prescout on their team a lot."

Jonathan Marchessault scored twice for Vegas (34-18-4). Adin Hill made 20 saves.
"We played pretty good first and third. We bent but didn't break in the second," Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb said. "Overall, pretty good game and good team to beat."
Corey Perry and Vladislav Namestnikov each had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay (35-17-3), which had its five-game point streak end (3-0-2). Victor Hedman had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves.
The Lightning ended their four-game road trip 2-1-1.
"It was an unfortunate first and a disappointing third," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "Little disappointed by how it turned out. … This was a night we could have gotten points and we didn't, so we sit here 10 minutes after the game a little sour. But when I look at the big picture, we got five of the eight."

Namestnikov gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 6:10 when he tipped in a pass from Perry.
Brett Howden responded seven seconds later to tie it 1-1, tapping in a pass from Keegan Kolesar from the right wing after Nicolas Roy won the face-off.
"It was nice to get a quick response like that," Howden said. "The first five minutes they were pushing hard and we were on our heels a bit. After they scored that to get one right back, put us right back in the game. So it was nice to have that happen."
Steven Stamkos put the Lightning back in front 2-1 at 6:57 with a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Hedman on a power play.
Marchessault tied the game 2-2 at 8:17 with a wrist shot from the left circle. It was his first goal since Jan. 7, ending a 13-game drought.
"It's probably the longest I went (without a goal)," Marchessault said. "You just have to move on. It's onto the next game. We'll enjoy it until midnight tonight. Then we'll try and get better tomorrow."
Theodore gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead at 14:21 when his shot trickled five-hole on Vasilevskiy.
Marchessault then scored his second to make it 4-2 at 17:47, collecting the rebound of Theodore's initial shot and finishing with his backhand. The goal was confirmed by a video review after Tampa Bay challenged for high-sticking earlier in the sequence.
"I thought my stick was around my shoulders," Marchessault said. "It hit the bottom part of it."

Perry cut the lead to 4-3 at 4:29 of the second period. His shot bounced off of Hill's glove and into the net after Hedman kept the puck in the offensive zone.
Roy scored an empty-net goal from behind his own blue line to make it 5-3 at 18:52.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare tipped in Mikhail Sergachev's point shot at 19:49 for the 5-4 final.
"We finished the game. That's what I really liked at the end," Cassidy said. "Three of the lines got on the score sheet. Typically, that's what's been going on lately. It's tough to get every line on the score sheet every night. … We're starting to figure it out like the start of the year."
NOTE: Paul Cotter had his goal streak end at three games, but he had an assist on Marchessault's first goal to give him four points in four games (three goals, one assist).