OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jonathan Marchessault scored twice and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Ottawa Senators 5-1 on Thursday night to cap a busy day.
In the morning, Vegas acquired injured forward Jack Eichel in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres. Eichel will have artificial disk replacement surgery soon.
“I played with Jack and obviously I’ve been talking to him quite a bit the last few months here,” goalie Robin Lehner said. “First and foremost, I’m just happy for him. He gets to go and take care of his body his way. I think that’s a big step for all of us players in the league, that we respect his choice.
“I wish him the best in recovery and as for him as a player, he’s a world class player. I’ve played with him for a few years and I’ve seen what he can do and he’s up there when he’s healthy and he’s on his game. He’s up there with anyone.”
Mattias Janmark, Brett Howden and Alex Pietrangelo also scored for Vegas, and Lehner made 38 saves against his former team.
Brady Tkachuk scored for Ottawa, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 35 shots.
“We had an entire line change and leave two (defensemen) out there and it ends up in the back of the net,” Senators coach D.J. Smith. “You’re not going to win in the National Hockey League if you can’t get on and off the ice. That’s a mature team that just played north, south, nothing fancy, and you can win games like that in this league.”
Carrier opened the scoring at 4:31 of the second period. Carrier seemed to whiff a bit on his shot, throwing Gustavsson’s timing off.
Howden made it 2-0 on a tip-in with 8:39 left in the period, and Marchessault got his first of the night on a backhander with 7:35 left in the period. Tkachuk tipped in Artem Zub’s point shot with 4:10 to go in the middle period.
Pietrangelo made it 4-1 late in the third, and Marchessault added an empty-net goal.
“We just didn’t do the little things good enough,” Tkachuk said. “The little details on forecheck.”
UP NEXT:
Golden Knights: At Montreal on Saturday night.
Senators: Host Tampa Bay on Saturday.
