Paul Cotter and Jonas Rondbjerg each scored their first NHL goals and Laurent Brossoit made 24 saves to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Jonathan Marchessault also scored for Vegas, which won for the seventh time in its last nine games. The Golden Knights killed off six penalties in the contest, including a five-on-three power play for 1:39 in the second period.
Ryan Hartman and Jared Spurgeon scored goals and Cam Talbot finished with 32 saves for the Wild which had a four-game winning streak snapped.
Vegas jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 6:08 mark of the first period when Cotter, playing in his second NHL game, finished a rush with a wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle past Talbot’s glove side.
Rondbjerg, who assisted on Cotter’s goal and was playing in his seventh career game, then made it 2-0 at the 16:41 mark when he blew past Alex Goligoski along the right boards and cut in and fired a wrist shot under Talbot’s right arm.
It marked the second time in team history that Vegas had two players score their first NHL goal in the same game. It also happened in a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Oct. 15, 2017, when Alex Tuch and Vadim Shipachyov also did it.
Minnesota missed a chance to cut into the lead midway through the second period when it had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:39 after back-to-back delay of game penalties by Nicolas Hague and Alex Pietrangelo. But Brossoit turned away all three Wild shots, including a point-blank attempt by Joel Eriksson Ek from the slot.
Vegas increased its lead to 3-0 with seven seconds left in the period when Reilly Smith stole the puck from Matt Dumba along the boards and hit Marchessault breaking in alone down the slot. Marchessault then fired a wrist shot past Talbot’s blocker side for his seventh goal of the season and fifth in five games.
Spurgeon made it 3-1 early in the third period, taking a nifty backhand feed from Kirill Kaprizov in the slot and firing a wrist shot past Brossoit’s stick side. Hartman followed with his seventh goal of the season with 6:25 left in the game with a one-timer from the center of the right circle past Brossoit’s stick side.
Vegas defenseman Alec Martinez left the game in the first period and didn’t return after getting hit in the face with the skate of Brandon Duhaime.
–Field Level Media