LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jack Eichel and Nic Roy each scored two goals and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the New York Islanders 5-2 on Saturday night.
Pavel Dorofeyev also scored for the Golden Knights, who had lost six of their last seven while getting outscored 29-15. Logan Thompson made 28 saves.
Eichel scored in the first and third periods, the latter with an assist to rookie Lukas Cormier in his NHL debut, while Roy got his in the second and third to bolster an offense that was starving for life.
“Credit to the group, we’ve always been a good rush team, but we always want to continue to work on an offensive zone play and scoring goals out of a cycle,” Eichel said. “So it’s good to see a few goals ... there were some good things to like about our offensive zone game. I thought it was just a good response for the group.”
Mathew Barzal and Matt Martin scored as the Islanders lost for the third time in four games (1-2-1). Ilya Sorokin stopped 24 shots.
“I thought, for about 2 1/2, three minutes I thought it was maybe our most solid game of the trip,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “Disappointing ending to (the trip), although I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. We had a lot of scoring chances. We just couldn’t put it in. We just have to get ready for our next game.”
New York closed its road trip losing three of four (1-2-1) and will have two days off before a two-game homestand beginning with Pacific Division-leading Vancouver on Tuesday.
Eichel, who leads all Golden Knights with 16 career points against the Islanders, put Vegas ahead 1-0 when his one-time blast got past Sorokin 6:25 into the game.
The lead was short-lived, as an official replay ruled Barzal’s shot traced the top of the net just inside the crossbar, tying the game at 1-all with 8:47 left in the first.
Thompson, who was starting the fifth straight game for Vegas, looked incredibly sharp, more so than he’s been recently.
As the Islanders outshot Vegas 16-9 in the first period, Thompson was a major reason the game remained tied 1-1, including his biggest save of the game when he stymied Kyle Palmieri on a breakaway in the second period.
“That was a big moment in the game,” Eichel said. “We trade odd-man rushes there, they get a breakaway and LT makes a huge save. Timely saves are so important in this game and he made them tonight, it was awesome to see. He’s battled for us, he made some big saves, not only then, but in other parts of the game. Tons of credit to Logan, he stepped up for us tonight.”
The Golden Knights took a 3-1 lead when they got goals from Dorofeyev and Roy 1:30 apart late in the second.
First, it was Dorofeyev tapping in a pass from Chandler Stephenson with 2:49 left, and then it was Roy skating into the left circle and snapping home a wrist shot with 1:19 remaining.
Starting the third period on a power play, Cormier grabbed a loose puck off a faceoff and swung the puck to Eichel, who lasered a wrist shot from the top of the right circle to give Vegas a 4-1 cushion 31 seconds in.
Martin scored a little more than two minutes later for the Islanders, and Roy followed up for the Golden Knights at 4:20 to provide the final margin.
UP NEXT
Islanders: Host Vancouver on Tuesday night.
Golden Knights: At Colorado on Wednesday night.
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