LAS VEGAS (AP) — Evgenii Dadonov and Jonathan Marchessault each scored twice and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Vancouver Canucks 7-4 on Saturday night.
Vegas extended its win streak to 8-2-0 since Oct. 26 after opening the season 1-4-0. The Golden Knights also continued dominating the Canucks, improving to 9-0-2 all-time since 2017.
After Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko was called for delay of game for knocking his own net off the post, Marchessault scored his 100th goal as a Golden Knight to put Vegas ahead 5-4, a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Reilly Smith, Brayden McNabb, and Jake Leschyshyn also scored for Vegas. Robin Lehner, who improved to 6-1 in his last seven starts, stopped 39 shots.
Nils Hoglander scored twice for the Canucks. J.T. Miller and Tanner Pearson also scored, while Demko made 31 saves.
Vancouver is now on a 2-6-1 slide since opening the season 3-2-1. It's a skid the team appeared poised to end after coming out firing.
Seconds after Michael Amadio missed a wide-open net that would have given the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead, it was Miller racing in alone at the other end and beating Lehner to put Vancouver in front early. The goal extended Miller’s point streak to seven games. He also has 12 points (6 goals, 6 assists) in his last 11 games.
The Canucks increased their lead not too long after when former Knight Brad Hunt sent the puck through the slot to Conor Garland, who threw the puck at the crease where it deflected off Pearson’s skate and into the net.
Demko had the Golden Knights stymied for much of the first period until Vegas ended up on a 5-on-3 power play late. With Oliver Ekman-Larsson serving a four-minute double-minor and Justin Bailey in the box for hooking, Dadonov punched home a loose puck in front of the net to cut Vancouver’s lead in half.
Smith tied the game early in the second period, when he corralled the puck in the neutral zone, skated in and roofed the puck over Demko’s glove for his fifth goal in 10 games. Jake Leschyshyn got the assist on Smith’s goal for his first career point.
With the teams skating 4-on-4, defenseman Shea Theodore intercepted a pass just inside the blue line and sent the puck across the ice to McNabb, who gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead with his second goal of the season.
Lehner stopped 16 consecutive shots after Vancouver took its 2-0 lead. But after getting stuffed at the doorstep, Hoglander was there to dig the puck from beneath Lehner and tie the game at 3.
Vegas' fourth goal came as Dadonov’s 360-spinning pass landed perfectly on Leschyshyn’s blade to make him the third Vegas rookie to score his first career goal.
The lead wouldn’t last though, as Hoglander smacked a loose rebound off Lehner’s pad into an open net for his second career two-goal game.
Dadonov got his second goal of the game after the Canucks turned the puck over and he broke into the zone on a 2-on-1 rush with Mark Stone. Stone, who returned to the lineup after missing the previous 12 games, fed Dadonov, who finished by beating Demko rather easily.
Marchessault scored his second of the night less than two minutes later to provide the final margin.
UP NEXT
Vancouver: Plays the second of back-to-back nights in Anaheim on Sunday.
Vegas: Hosts Carolina on Tuesday
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