Jonathan Marchessault scored two goals and Shea Theodore had a goal and two assists to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
It was the third two-goal game of the season for Marchessault. Brett Howden and Nicolas Roy also scored, and Reilly Smith had two assists for the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights, who moved into a tie with the Dallas Stars atop the Western Conference with 72 points.
Adin Hill finished with 20 saves to win his fourth straight start.
Corey Perry and Vladislav Namestnikov each had a goal and an assist, and Steven Stamkos and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored goals for Tampa Bay. Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev each added a pair of assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 21 saves.
Vegas took a 4-2 lead in a wild first period that featured three goals over a 47-second span.
Namestnikov gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at the 6:10 mark when he deflected a Perry shot into the top right corner of the net for his sixth goal of the season.
Vegas tied it just seven seconds later — the quickest response to a goal in team history — when Howden redirected a Keegan Kolesar crossing pass into an open left side of the net for his third goal of the season.
Stamkos answered with his 25th goal of the season just 40 seconds later to put Tampa Bay back in front. Marchessault then tied it, 2-2, at the 8:17 mark with a snap shot from the bottom of the left circle.
Theodore gave Vegas a 3-2 lead at 14:20 when his slap shot from the right circle squeaked under Vasilevskiy’s left arm for his sixth goal of the season. Marchessault increased the lead to 4-2 at the 17:46 mark with his 17th goal of the season.
The Lightning cut it to 4-3 early in the second period when Perry snapped a shot from the bottom of the left circle off Hill’s glove and into the net.
The Golden Knights made it 5-3 with an empty-net goal by Roy with 1:09 to go. Bellemare scored on a deflection off a Sergachev shot with 10.8 seconds left to make it a one-goal game again, but there wasn’t enough time for an equalizer.
–Field Level Media
