Jonathan Marchessault scored a hat trick, including the game-winning goal with 2:44 to go as the Vegas Golden Knights snapped a four-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the slumping Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
It was the eighth hat trick of Marchessault’s career and his third of the season. He leads the team with 35 goals.
Jack Eichel had three assists, Brayden McNabb and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored goals and Noah Hanifin and Ivan Barbashev each added two assists for Vegas, which won for just the second time in nine games (2-6-1) and also snapped a five-game home losing streak.
Adin Hill made 23 saves to snap a personal three-game losing streak for the Golden Knights.
Michael Rasmussen had a goal and an assist and Shayne Gostisbehere and J.T. Compher also scored goals for Detroit, which has lost a season-high five games in a row. Moritz Seider and David Perron each added two assists, and James Reimer finished with 31 saves.
Vegas took a 1-0 lead at the 9:08 mark of the first period on Dorofeyev’s wrister from the top of slot that went through traffic and then Reimer’s pads for his eighth goal of the season. It marked the first time in five games that the Golden Knights had a lead in a game.
Marchessault made it 2-0 when he one-timed a pass from Eichel from the left circle past Reimer’s blocker side.
Detroit, playing the second half of a back-to-back that began with a 4-0 loss at Arizona on Friday, cut the lead to 2-1 with 28 seconds left in the period when Rasmussen deflected Seider’s shot from the left point past Hill’s glove side for his 13th goal.
Compher tied it early in the third period with a power-play goal, deflecting Seider’s wrist shot from just inside the blue line inside the left post for his 16th goal.
McNabb made it 3-2 at the 10:07 mark when his wrist shot from the high slot deflected off the back of Seider, hit the crossbar and then went into the net for his first goal in 35 games.
Detroit tied it just 37 seconds later when Gostisbehere backhanded in a rebound of a Compher shot for his 10th goal.
Marchessault then put the Golden Knights back in front, 4-3, when he tapped in a rebound of an Eichel shot.
Detroit pulled Reimer for an extra attacker with two minutes to go, and Marchessault sealed the win and completed his hat trick with an empty-netter with 1:07 remaining.
–Field Level Media