Golden Knights defeat Kraken, move into second wild card in West

SEATTLE --Jack Eichel scored twice for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 5-2 win against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday.

Eichel made it 1-0 at 10:28 of the first period, tipping in an Alec Martinez shot, and extended the lead to 2-0 at 1:26 of the second period after Seattle defenseman Jamie Oleksiak fell and lost the puck to Evgenii Dadonov, who found him alone in the slot.
It was Eichel's first multigoal game since Feb. 22, 2020, when he scored two goals against the Pittsburgh Penguins as a member of the Buffalo Sabres.
"Every game's competitive in the league, it doesn't matter where you're playing," Eichel said. "They have a lot of good players over there, so it's important, you have to take care of business every night. We know the position that we're in, but we can only control so much and just get two points every night."
Jonathan Marchessault scored, Dadonov and Chandler Stephenson each had two assists, and Logan Thompson made 26 saves for the Golden Knights (38-28-4), who won their fourth straight and moved one point ahead of the Dallas Stars for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
"Winning is fun, right?" Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. "We won three in a row, and [now] four in a row tonight, that leads to that fun environment. And when you've lost four or five in a row, it's tough to recreate that. … We took care of business, and we knew we needed to because of the teams around us. We came in here and did what we need to do and you know, it's on to the next job."

Alex Wennberg and Kole Lind scored, and Philipp Grubauer made 21 saves for the Kraken (21-41-6), who finished 0-4-0 against Vegas this season.
"Our guys competed really hard," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "A very important part of that was how we came out and competed and pushed in the third (period). We had a legitimate push to get ourselves back in that game, and you take out a couple of the mistakes that led to the second and third goals against, we played [a] pretty good hockey game tonight."
Shea Theodore gave Vegas a 3-0 lead at 7:20 of the second period.
Wennberg cut the lead to 3-1 at 10:44 of the third period off a backhand pass from Jared McCann in the slot, but Marchessault made it 4-1 with an empty-net goal at 17:44.
Lind scored his first NHL goal to cut the lead to 4-2 at 18:22.
"We were better, but still some of their opportunities came off our sticks," Hakstol said. "That's gonna happen. Mistakes are gonna happen, but our attention to that was much better. Some better possession and opportunities for us with the puck."

William Karlsson scored an empty-net goal while shorthanded at 19:28 for the 5-2 final.
"I think defensively we've been better, but think that coincides with the return of our veterans, and all those guys made a huge difference," DeBoer said. "[Thompson] has played really well, but I think our team is benefited by the return on those guys. That just solidifies things defensively. It also helps us on our breakouts which leads to speed to the neutral zone."
NOTES:Theodore has scored at least 40 points (10 goals, 30 assists) for the third straight season. Only three NHL defensemen have longer active streaks: Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning (7), Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins (5) and John Carlson of the Washington Capitals (5). … Martinez had an assist for his first point since returning from a facial injury on March 26 (three games). He missed 53 games after being struck by the skate blade of Minnesota Wild forward Brandon Duhaime on Nov. 11. … Dadonov has scored 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past six games. … Stephenson has scored seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past four games. … Marchessault extended his point streak to four games (two goals, six assists).