Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist and Reilly Smith scored on a penalty shot to help lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

Eichel’s goal was his first since Jan. 12 against Florida, snapping a nine-game goal drought, and also highlighted a four-goal second period for Vegas. Nicolas Roy, Alex Pietrangelo and Paul Cotter also scored for the Golden Knights while Jonathan Marchessault added two assists.

Logan Thompson made 23 saves to pick up his 20th victory of the season, but he had to be assisted off the ice with a left leg injury with 18:41 remaining in the game. Adin Hill finished up and made four saves.

Kirill Kaprizov scored for Minnesota, which lost its third straight game and sixth in eight.

Marc-Andre Fleury broke a tie with Terry Sawchuk for fourth place for most games played by a goaltender in NHL history with his 972nd contest. He made 18 saves on 23 shots before giving way to Filip Gustavsson at the start of the third period. Gustavsson finished with eight saves.

Roy gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at the 7:07 mark of the first period when his wrist shot from the high slot ricocheted off the shin of Wild defender Calen Addison and through Fleury’s legs. It was Roy’s 10th goal of the season.

Pietrangelo made it 2-0 early in the second period when his shot from the right point deflected off the skate of Joel Eriksson Ek past Fleury. It was his seventh goal of the season.

Minnesota, playing its third game in four days and the second half of a back-to-back that began with a 4-1 loss at Dallas on Wednesday, cut it to 2-1 at 4:37. Kaprizov backhanded in a rebound during a goalmouth scramble on a power play for his 29th goal of the season.

The Golden Knights then broke the game open with three goals in the span of 2:26 midway through the second period.

Cotter started the flurry with his ninth goal of the season, off Eichel’s backhand pass from behind the net.

Smith was then slashed by Alex Goligoski on a breakaway to earn a penalty shot. He fired a wrist shot through Fleury’s pads that slowly trickled over the goal line for his team-leading 19th goal.

Eichel made it 5-1 just 20 seconds later when he broke free down the right wing and ripped a wrist shot past Fleury’s blocker side. It was Eichel’s 16th goal of the season and first in 10 games.

–Field Level Media

Elias Pettersson scored the tying and go-ahead goals in a span of fewer than four minutes in the third period Thursday night for the visiting Vancouver Canucks, who overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the New York Islanders 6-5 in Elmont, N.Y.

Petterson scored a power-play goal 4:38 into the third before he completed an end-to-end rush by taking a pass from Brock Boeser and beating Ilya Sorokin with 11:32 left.

Anthony Beauvillier, who was traded by the Islanders to the Canucks for Bo Horvat on Jan. 30, added a pivotal insurance goal by redirecting a shot by Boeser with 3:02 left.

Boeser, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Nils Aman also scored for the Canucks, who are 3-2-1 since Rick Tocchet was named head coach Jan. 22. Goalie Collin Delia made 24 saves.

Horvat also scored in his first game against his former team for the Islanders, who also received goals from Kyle Palmieri, Brock Nelson, Mathew Barzal and Noah Dobson but had their four-game winning streak snapped. Sorokin recorded 28 saves.

The teams traded four goals in a chaotic span of 3:29 shortly beyond the midway point of the first period.

Palmieri opened the scoring at the 11:05 mark, when he created a shooting lane by screeching to a stop with Ekman-Larsson in front of him before firing a shot over Delia’s stick hand.

Ekman-Larsson scored from the blue line following a turnover just 39 seconds later.

The Canucks took a short-lived lead 46 seconds later on Boeser’s goal. Nelson scored an unassisted goal off a Canucks turnover 2:04 later, when he beat Kyle Burroughs to a loose puck, skated up the right side and beat Delia glove side with 5:26 left.

Barzal and Dobson exchanged the puck five times before the center fired a slapshot from the left faceoff circle at the 2:26 mark of the second period for a 3-2 Islanders lead. Horvat extended the advantage to 4-2 with 4:47 left in the second by beating Delia from the edge of the left faceoff circle.

The Canucks cut the deficit to a goal just 51 seconds later when Aman tucked a shot home following Phillip Di Giuseppe’s wraparound pass into the crease.

Dobson scored a power-play, extra-attacker goal with 48.8 seconds left.

–Field Level Media

The Pittsburgh Penguins have the longest active playoff streak in the NHL, reaching the Stanley Cup playoffs in 16 consecutive seasons, but there are no guarantees that will continue.

As they hit the ice in Anaheim on Friday to face the Ducks, the Penguins know the full value of kicking off a four-game road swing on the right note.

The Penguins, who have a 4-3-3 record in their last 10 games, have something to build on after they came out of the All-Star break and claimed a 2-1 overtime victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.

“We’ve talked to them about hitting the reset button from a mindset standpoint, getting excited about the opportunities that we have in front of us, and the challenges we have in front of us,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “Our most meaningful hockey is in front of us and we got to get excited about it. It’s also going to be our hardest hockey.”

Defeating the reigning Stanley Cup champion Avalanche showed the kind of resilience the Penguins need while in a dogfight for a playoff berth. Pittsburgh erased a third-period deficit before Kris Letang scored the winner.

“It’s definitely a really good stepping stone,” said forward Bryan Rust, who scored the tying goal late in regulation. “We got to learn some good lessons from this, but consistency is key right now. We’ve been harping on our consistency, and I think we got to walk the walk here and put that into motion.”

Letang has scored the overtime winner in both of Pittsburgh’s last two wins.

“It’s well-chronicled that Tanger’s had a tough first half in so many different ways,” Sullivan said. “So we’re certainly thrilled for him for a lot of reasons. He’s just so important to our team.”

The Ducks are coming off a comeback victory of their own, a 3-2 overtime road win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, which came one night after Anaheim dropped a 3-2 shootout affair in Dallas. It’s not an easy way to come out of the break, but the rebuilding young team put its best foot forward.

“I think (it’s) just mindset,” forward Frank Vatrano said. “You’re obviously not going to feel too good even if you come off an eight-day break. A back-to-back is a back-to-back. This is a tough league no matter who you’re playing against. Every night is a challenge. We knew we were going to have a tough challenge ahead, and we just kept our heads in it.”

The Ducks may sit at the bottom of the Pacific Division but they have not completely thrown in the towel. They have a 4-0-1 mark in their last five games.

“That was like air coming out of a balloon there,” coach Dallas Eakins said of earning the most recent victory. “I think the schedule is really tough for all the teams coming off the break. For us to come back and have to play back-to-back is extremely hard. It’s one thing we have been this year, really resilient. We just kept our head down and kept swinging.”

There was no word Thursday whether Ducks All-Star forward Troy Terry, injured in Monday’s game against the Dallas Stars before missing the Chicago game, would be available to face the Penguins. Terry is second on the team with 42 points.

–Field Level Media

Filip Zadina scored his first goal of the season after missing over three months as the host Detroit Red Wings edged the Calgary Flames 2-1 on Thursday.

Zadina was sidelined since early November by a foot injury before going on a rehab assignment last week. Dylan Larkin scored the other goal for Detroit, while Ville Husso made 35 saves.

Blake Coleman scored the lone Flames goal, while Dan Vladar made 15 saves.

Calgary had a 12-5 advantage in shots on goal in the opening period but the game remained scoreless.

The Red Wings were awarded a four-minute power play when Nikita Zadorov was called for high-sticking Jonatan Berggren. The Flames were able to kill off that penalty as Vladar made six saves during that span.

Detroit had another power play in the period when Michael Stone was called for high sticking but the Red Wings spent a majority of those two minutes in their own zone.

The Flames finally broke the drought with 1:53 left in the period when Coleman redirected Noah Hanifin’s shot from the point. The puck snuck just inside the crossbar. Mikael Backlund had the second assist on Coleman’s 12th goal this season.

The Flames’ Dillon Dube was whistled for tripping with just over a minute left in the period. The Red Wings cashed in with 14 seconds left when Larkin lifted a shot over Vladar’s right shoulder off a feed from David Perron. Larkin’s 16th goal was also assisted by Moritz Seider.

Zadina put the Red Wings on top at 5:51 of the third on a two-on-one situation. Zadina passed the puck from the right circle to Oskar Sundqvist, who gave it right back to Zadina. Vladar was unable to recover in time as Zadina fired it in. Robert Hagg had the second assist.

Detroit’s Ben Chiarot was called for a slashing penalty with 3:51 left. The Wings were able to kill that off, then hold on in the final minute.

–Field Level Media

Defenseman Dougie Hamilton scored twice, extending his points streak to six games, as the New Jersey Devils defeated the visiting Seattle Kraken 3-1 Thursday night in Newark, N.J.

John Marino added an empty-netter with 1:11 remaining and Ondrej Palat had two assists for the Devils, who won their third consecutive game and improved to 10-1-1 in their past 12. Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood made 33 saves.

Adam Larsson scored as the Kraken suffered their second straight loss on their five-game trip following the All-Star break. Philipp Grubauer stopped 24 of 26 shots.

Hamilton scored the go-ahead goal at 10:00 of the third period on the power play. Jesper Bratt’s shot rang off the crossbar before Palat got the puck in the right-wing corner. He fed the puck back to Hamilton, whose blast from just outside the top of the faceoff circles deflected off the right hip of Seattle’s Brandon Tanev and hit the crossbar just inside the left post before settling in the back of the net.

Hamilton has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) during his scoring streak.

The Kraken opened the scoring at 14:05 of the second period. Alex Wennberg won a faceoff in the offensive zone back to Vince Dunn at the left point. Dunn quickly sent a cross-ice pass to fellow defenseman Larsson, whose wrist shot made it through a screen set by Wennberg and just over Blackwood’s mitt and inside the right post.

The Devils tied the score just 24 seconds later with Seattle’s Will Borgen in the penalty box for cross-checking. The puck went behind the net following a faceoff in the Kraken’s end and Palat outmuscled defenseman Jamie Oleksiak for possession. Palat fed Tomas Tatar on the right wing and he sent a pass to Hamilton in the high slot. His one-timer beat a screened Grubauer and found its way into the top right corner of the net.

Both teams played without their leading scorers. All-Star Jack Hughes missed his first game for the Devils this season with an upper-body injury. The Kraken’s Andre Burakovsky, who lasted just one shift in Tuesday’s 4-0 loss against the host New York Islanders, has a lower-body injury. Both players are considered week-to-week.

–Field Level Media