Barbashev scores twice in 3rd, Golden Knights hand Jets 5th straight loss

WINNIPEG -- Ivan Barbashev scored two goals in the third period for the Vegas Golden Knights, who handed the Winnipeg Jets their fifth straight loss with a 4-1 win at Canada Life Centre on Thursday.

“They’re a playoff team. It’s a team we’re starting to develop a mutual hatred for,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Those types of wins mean a little bit more. ... It was physical, and those bring the best out of us.”

Barbashev made it 2-1 at 14:31 of the third period, finishing a bouncing puck in the slot with his backhand off a pass from Anthony Mantha on the rush.

“I heard him [Barbvashev] calling for the puck. [Zach Whitecloud] made a good play,” Mantha said. “Everyone thought, probably, he was going to rim that and he didn’t, so he gave it to me. And then, for me, it’s just try to get it to an open area for [Barbashev]. ... I just kind of placed it in the area, and credit to him for burying that goal.”

Barbashev then pushed it to 3-1 at 18:15 with an empty-net goal before Jack Eichel scored into another empty net at 19:26 for the 4-1 final.

“Pretty tight game, just got to give credit to our penalty kill (5-for-5),” Barbashev said. “They did a really good job for us today to keep us in the game, and this is maybe something we got to do better of just trying to stay out of the box.”

Pavel Dorofeyev also scored, and Logan Thompson made 39 saves for the Golden Knights (40-25-8), who are 4-0-1 in their past five games.

Vegas moved one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, who lost 4-1 to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, for third in the Pacific Division.

“I would give our 'D' a credit for the penalty kill they did,” Cassidy said. “Logan was really good, whatever he saw, he saved. ... Especially when you’re killing whatever amount of time we did. So, good for Logan, he’s been playing well and we need him.”

Sean Monahan scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets (44-23-6), who are 0-4-1 in their past five.

“It was a little more dangerous, and we missed a wide-open net in the third period,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said of the power play, which is 0-for-16 in its past five games. “You want those to go in. And we still generated shots. Bottom line is, we’ve got to score on it. No getting away from that. You have to score on it. We had five opportunities. We put more pucks to the net and had some better looks, but you have to score, and we didn’t score.”

Dorofeyev put Vegas ahead 1-0 at 15:56 of the first period with a snap shot from the left face-off circle off a centering pass from William Karlsson.

“Obviously, it [stinks] right now, but last game we had a lot of good things, and today we did a lot of really good things as well,” Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers said. “I think we deserved better. But we are definitely going in the right direction.”

Monahan tied it 1-1 at 3:31 of the second, redirecting a wrist shot from Ehlers from above the right circle past Thompson.

“You go to the net, it's a great shot by him to see me there kind of alone, and nice to get to stick on it,” Monahan said. “You are always trying to get better, and everyone says it's an important time of the year. It's time for us to push and try and hit our peaks.”

NOTES: The Golden Knights swept the season series against the Jets, winning all three meetings in regulation. … Dorofeyev has three goals in his past four games. … Mantha has five assists during a four-game point streak. … Karlsson has five points (one goal, four assists) in a three game point streak. … Winnipeg forward Vladislav Namestnikov played his 700th NHL game.