Golden Knights halt 2-game skid with 4-1 win over Coyotes

By W.G. RAMIREZ
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Alex Pietrangelo had a goal and two assists, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Arizona Coyotes 4-1 on Thursday night.

William Carrier, Mark Stone and Reilly Smith also scored to help Vegas halt a two-game skid. Logan Thompson made 25 saves, and Jonathan Marchessault added two assists.

The Golden Knights improved to 17-7-0 against the Coyotes, including 10-3-0 on home ice.

Clayton Keller scored for Arizona to extend his point streak to six games. Karel Vejmelka stopped 35 shots.

After going 0 for 3 on the power play and 1 for 2 on the penalty kill in Tuesday’s 5-2 home loss to San Jose, the Golden Knights tightened up their special teams by stifling an Arizona squad that entered with the NHL’s fourth-best power play.

“I think the penalty kill was huge in that second period,” Pietrangelo said.

Arizona had a very brief 5-on-3 before having a one-man advantage for another 1:56, but couldn’t capitalize.

Vegas stymied the Coyotes on all four of their power-play opportunities.

“We made them work hard to get into the zone … expending some energy and some time to get set up,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “And I thought on the contested pucks we did a good job getting our clears.”

Pietrangelo broke a scoreless tie at 12:21 of the second when he took Jack Eichel’s feed at the point and fired a one-timer through traffic to give Vegas its first power-play goal in three games.

“There was a lot of chatter about the power play coming into the season,” Pietrangelo said. “I think we’ve done a real good job executing. We’ve got two really good units.”

Carrier made it 2-0 when he drove to the crease and sent a shot that deflected over Vejmelka just 32 seconds into the third.

Stone scored with 14:07 left when he batted a rebound out of midair to make it 3-0.

Pietrangelo, who assisted on the goals by Carrier and Stone, leads all Vegas skaters in career points against the Coyotes with 30 in 44 games. It marked his second three-point game in seven days.

“I’m sure there’s teams I have a horrible stat against,” Pietrangelo said. “They play physical — it kind of gets me engaged. I like teams that come at you ’cause you can get them out of position, make them vulnerable in the O zone, and sometimes you take advantage of that.”

Keller spoiled Thompson’s bid for his third shutout of the season when he scored his seventh goal midway through the third, but that was all the Coyotes could muster in their sixth straight road game.

“We missed Grade-A opportunities,” coach André Tourigny said. “We had other plays where we needed to be quicker with our shot to get the goalie in motion, stuff like that. There’s a lot of work to do offensively.”

Smith’s goal with 1:03 remaining provided the final margin.

NOTES: Phil Kessel skated in his 1,000th consecutive game, extending his NHL record. The 35-year-old Vegas forward played 208 of those with Arizona the previous three seasons. … The Coyotes plan a pit stop back home this weekend before continuing their stretch of 14 straight road games while work is done on their new arena at Arizona State University. … Chandler Stephenson’s assist on Stone’s goal extended his point streak to five games.

UP NEXT

Coyotes: Hit the road again Monday in Nashville.

Golden Knights: Visit the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

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