Jack Eichel scored a power-play goal with 4:36 remaining, breaking a tie and lifting the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night, marking their fifth consecutive win to open the season.
The Golden Knights are the first defending champions to start a season with five straight wins since the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers.
“Good teams find a way to win, and we found a way to win,” Eichel said. “Obviously, we’ll take the two points tonight.”
Following Eichel’s go-ahead goal, Nicolas Roy sealed the game with an empty-netter with 1:03 left.
Jonathan Marchessault, Brett Howden, and Alec Martinez also scored for the Golden Knights. Logan Thompson made 36 saves.
“We know we’re not going to play our best every night, but a ton of credit goes to our goalie,” Eichel said. “And we found a way to score some goals down the stretch.”
Alex Iafallo scored twice for Winnipeg, while Cole Perfetti added a goal. Laurent Brossoit stopped 22 shots.
“It’s frustrating to lose, obviously,” Iafallo said. “You want to win every game, but we will 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 will keep moving forward, climbing that mountain.”
The game was a rematch of Vegas’ 4-1 series victory over Winnipeg in the first round of last season’s playoffs.
UP NEXT
- Golden Knights: At Chicago on Saturday night.
- Jets: At Edmonton on Saturday night.