Sheldon Rempal scored his first NHL goal to snap a second-period tie Tuesday night and Nicolas Roy followed with what proved to be the game-winner fewer than two minutes later for the visiting Vegas Golden Knights, who held on for a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders in Elmont, N.Y.
Ivan Barbashev scored in the first period for the Golden Knights, who have won four of five (4-0-1). Goalie Adin Hill, who had missed the previous 15 games with a lower body injury, made 41 saves.
Brock Nelson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Islanders, who fell to 1-1 under head coach Patrick Roy and 6-9-4 since Dec. 15. Goalie Ilya Sorokin recorded 24 saves in the loss.
Sorokin turned back a shot by Alex Pietrangelo to begin the chaotic sequence that led to Barbashev’s goal. Islanders defenseman Sebastian Aho beat Nicolas Roy to the puck but couldn’t corral it as he tried to remain upright with Barbashev closing in. New York defenseman Adam Pelech backhanded the puck out of the crease, but it bounced to Pietrangelo, whose shot glanced off Barbashev’s stick.
Nelson scored at 3:35 of the second after taking a cross-ice pass from Alexander Romanov and beating Hill from the middle of the right faceoff circle. The Golden Knights responded by scoring twice in 1:49 before the midway point of the period.
Scott Mayfield was whistled for interference at the 6:14 mark to set up Rempal’s power-play goal 64 seconds later. Rempal — playing his 14th NHL game over parts of five seasons — took a pass from Roy in the neutral zone and chipped the puck ahead before sending a shot under Sorokin’s stick arm.
A turnover by Noah Dobson led to Roy’s game-winner. Barbashev picked off Dobson’s clearing pass in the Islanders’ zone and dished to Jonathan Marchessault, whose shot glanced off Sorokin’s pads before Roy put back the rebound.
Pageau scored a short-handed goal 9:26 into the third, when he took a drop pass from Simon Holmstrom and fired a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle that threaded a needle between Roy and Alec Martinez — each of whom was converging into Pageau’s shooting lane — and went over Hill’s glove.
Sorokin was pulled with a little more than 1:40 left, but the Islanders couldn’t get the equalizer despite recording four shots.
–Field Level Media
