Jonathan Marchessault scored his 200th career goal. Jack Eichel contributed a goal and an assist, leading the Vegas Golden Knights to a 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.
Zach Whitecloud, Keegan Kolesar, Michael Amadio, and William Karlsson also found the net for Vegas, with Logan Thompson making 26 saves.
“He’s a goal scorer, but he can make plays too,” coach Bruce Cassidy said about Marchessault. “He’s a good two-way player for us, but let’s face it, he gets excited to score. That’s a big part of what he brings to the table for us.”
Jordan Kyrou, Jake Neighbours, and Kevin Hayes scored for St. Louis, and Jordan Binnington recorded a season-high 43 saves.
The teams faced off on Monday in Las Vegas, with the Blues winning 2-1 overtime. St. Louis has alternated wins and losses in its past eight games.
“Listen, we got a split with them,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “Disappointing tonight for sure at home. But we’ve got to go back on the road here. We’ve got back-to-back games, so we’ve got to focus on that.”
The Golden Knights took control in the second period with four goals, including two on the power play. The first three came in less than three minutes.
Vegas scored at 8:03 of the first period when Whitecloud netted his first goal. The Blues are now 1-11-1 when allowing the first goal in a game.
St. Louis responded with three goals to take a 3-1 lead into the second period. Neighbors tied it at 1-1 at 9:20 after Ivan Barbashev lost the puck in the neutral zone, allowing Neighbours to skate in and score his 10th of the season.
Hayes put the Blues ahead 2-1 at 10:33, deflecting a shot from Torey Krug past Thompson. Kyrou extended the lead to 3-1 at 17:11, weaving through defenders to score and end a 10-game goal drought.
However, that was all for the Blues offensively.
“We got back to our game. We weren’t giving them speed entering our zone,” Kolesar said. “We were getting sticks before the puck before they could make plays. That’s how we were able to counter them.”
The Golden Knights’ four-goal second period began with Eichel scoring from the top of the slot at 9:42, his 12th of the season. Marchessault added a power-play goal with a between-the-legs, no-look pass from Karlsson, his 12th of the season and third in three games.
Kolesar tipped a shot from Brayden McNabb past Binnington to give Vegas a 4-3 lead, and Amadio added a power-play goal with 18 seconds left in the period.
Vegas had eight power-play opportunities compared to three for St. Louis.
“Obviously, I thought we took too many penalties in the game,” Berube said. “I think that was one of the biggest problems. It was hard, a lot of killing, burnt out a lot of guys tonight.”
Karlsson capped the scoring with an empty-netter with 12 seconds remaining.
UP NEXT
- Golden Knights: At Dallas on Saturday.
- Blues: At Columbus on Friday night.