Eichel, Golden Knights defeat Jets, win 5th straight to start season

WINNIPEG -- Jack Eichel’s power-play goal broke a tie with 4:36 remaining in the third period, and the Vegas Golden Knights remained undefeated with a 5-3 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Thursday.

Eichel made it 4-3 with a high wrist shot from the left face-off circle to the short side.

“I was just trying to get a shot on net,” Eichel said. “I didn’t see it go in. We’re not going to play our best every night, but a ton of credit to our goalie, and we found a way to score some goals down the stretch. Good teams find a way to win, and we found a way to win. Obviously, we’ll take the two points tonight.”

The Golden Knights (5-0-0) tied the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers and the 1920-21 Ottawa Senators for the longest winning streak to begin a season by a reigning Stanley Cup champion.

Alec Martinez scored in his season debut, and Logan Thompson made 36 saves for Vegas. Shea Theodore had three assists, and Mark Stone had two.

“[Thompson] certainly did his job. We have to give him a lot of credit,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We were playing pretty well in front of him, and in the second period we seemed to have things in hand and [were] playing the right way, and then it just got away from us. A lot of that’s on us. Give Winnipeg credit especially in the third the way they came out. They won a lot of races and battles.”

Alex Iafallo scored twice, and Laurent Brossoit made 22 saves in his season debut for Winnipeg (1-3-0), which outshot Vegas 20-9 in the third. Nikolaj Ehlers had two assists.

The Jets have given up at least four goals in every game this season and five in three of them.

“The end result stings,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “That was a great third period. Give their goalie a lot of credit. He made all those key saves. That being said, we just can’t keep giving up four, five goals a game. We’re not going to win until we stop that. Which means we’ve got to clean up our zone. Our turnovers in our zone are really costing us.”

Brossoit was facing his former team in his first game since signing a one-year, $1,750,000 contract with the Jets on July 1. He played the past two seasons for the Golden Knights, starting all five games of Vegas’ victory against Winnipeg in the Western Conference First Round. He became the first goalie in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with a team and then face that team in his debut the following season.

“We’re playing the Stanley Cup champions,” Bowness said. “They’re big, they’re strong, they’re aggressive and we’re making soft plays. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Iafallo gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 1:30 of the first period, burying a rebound of a Josh Morrissey shot from the left boards.

Jonathan Marchessault tied it 1-1 on the power play at 17:42 with a one-timer from the point.

"You're not always going to win pretty, but you do have to find a way to win these ugly games," said Stone, the Golden Knights captain. "We didn't have the quickest start. We kind of settled in and I think we had a good middle frame, middle part of the game."

Brett Howden put Vegas in front 2-1 49 seconds into the second period after he forced a turnover by Winnipeg defenseman Dylan DeMelo and Stone fed him on the ensuing 2-on-1 rush.

“It’s a mental thing, there’s no question,” Bowness said. “When you want to get the puck out of your zone, you make high percentage plays. You make hard plays. We’re making poor percentage plays and we’re making soft plays. It’s a bad combination.”

Martinez extended it to 3-1 at 15:27.

Cole Perfetti cut it to 3-2 on the rush 33 seconds later at 16:00, lifting a backhand over Thompson’s pad.

Iafallo tied it 3-3 on the power play at 11:32 of the third with his second goal of the game, on a one-timer from the left hash marks.

“It could have easily gone Winnipeg’s way,” Cassidy said. “But we found a way to win the game, especially on the power play. A timely goal, and then Logan makes his saves along the way.

After Eichel gave Vegas the lead, Nicolas Roy scored into an empty net at 18:57 for the 5-3 final.

“It’s frustrating to lose, obviously,” Iafallo said. “You want to win every game, but we are just going to stay positive. I feel like we are doing a lot of good things. We need to clean up some mistakes, but at the same time we are just going to keep climbing, climbing that mountain.”

NOTES: In addition to his goal, Martinez had two hits, four giveaways, a takeaway and a blocked shot in 19:02 of ice time. The defenseman missed the first four games with an upper-body injury. … Vegas has the longest season-opening win streak in its seven seasons. … The Golden Knights allowed their first power-play goal of the season and are 12-for-13 on the penalty kill. … The Jets went 1-for-2 on the power play and are 3-for-16 for the season. They were 0-for-2 on the penalty kill. … Brossoit previously played three seasons for Winnipeg (2018-21).