Golden Knights rally past Penguins with 3 goals in 3rd

LAS VEGAS -- Brendan Brisson scored his first NHL goal for the Vegas Golden Knights, who scored three goals in the third period to rally for a 3-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Brisson, who was playing his third NHL game, made it 3-2 at 9:40 with a shot blocker side from the high slot.

“It was crazy. I just put the puck on net. I saw it went in and I just blacked out from there,” Brisson said. “I don’t even know if I [celebrated]. … The storyline’s perfect. It couldn’t have gone any better.”

Jonathan Marchessault and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored, and Ivan Barbashev had two assists for Vegas (27-14-5), which has won three in a row and four of five. Logan Thompson made 23 saves.

“We were going down that path after the second of another shutout, which has happened a lot to us where we didn’t have enough push back when it was necessary,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I liked our push, and we kept pushing. We didn’t sit back on our heels. …  I liked our whole mentality. You need that every once in a while. It keeps the momentum rolling. It could be games you look at later and say, ‘It could have springboard into the next game or stretch.”

Ryan Graves and Jake Guentzel scored, and Tristan Jarry made 26 saves for Pittsburgh (21-16-6), which has lost three of four (1-1-2).

“We didn't defend hard enough. All three of the goals were seemingly nothing plays that ended up in the net,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We had numbers back. We got to defend harder, and we've got to have some predictability to how we defend, and we didn't have it."

Marchessault cut the lead to 2-1 at 5:18 of the third period on a rebound in front.

“We talked about our rebound game and our slot battle over the last month of December was not very good,” Cassidy said. “Analytics proved that. We get one.”

Dorofeyev tied the game 2-2 at 6:52, chipping in a shot from in front off a pass from Chandler Stephenson from behind the net.

“He’s got a good sense on where to be on the ice in good situations,” Cassidy said. “I feel comfortable wherever we put ‘Pav.' He can complement guys. Get to the net, but he’s still smart enough and has good enough hands to make those plays, so he can get those chances at the net. … He knows his fit.”

Graves gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 9:02 of the second period, banking the puck in off Thompson from below the goal line.

Guentzel extended the lead to 2-0 at 14:01 with a wrist shot that beat Thompson glove side from the right circle. It was 20th goal of the season.

“He knows how to score. He scores a lot of different ways,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. “He does a lot of other things, too. Glad to see him get that number. Sure he’ll get a lot more.”

NOTES: Crosby became the 14th player in NHL history to record 600 primary assists. He also joined Mario Lemieux (654) as the second player in Penguins history to achieve the feat. … Pittsburgh defenseman Erik Karlsson had an assist to extend his point streak to eight games (one goal, eight assists). ... Marchessault has scored in three straight games and has 20 goals on the season.