The Vegas Golden Knights (31-15-6) took down the Arizona Coyotes (23-23-3) in a 3-2 contest to tie the season series on Thursday night at Mullett Arena.
HOW IT WENT DOWN
A busy first period saw Jonathan Marchessault tally a quick goal on a cross-ice pass from Ivan Barbashev, wristing it past Arizona goaltender Connor Ingram 19 seconds into the frame. Just under a minute later, Nicolas Hague put a shot on net from the point that bounced in over Ingram. Arizona's Jason Zucker managed to get the Coyotes on the board at 4:07 of the first, but Chandler Stephenson beat Ingram blocker-side off the rush for the third Vegas goal at 6:17. Arizona made a goaltender switch at 11:51 of the opening frame as Karel Vejmelka came in for Ingram after he let up three goals on six shots. A scoreless second period gave way to a Clayton Keller tally on a breakaway 3:40 into the third to make it a one-goal game. The Golden Knights held on to the 3-2 score to earn their second straight win out of the All-Star Break.
TOP PERFORMERS
Adin Hill: Hill stopped 20 of 22 shots for his fourth straight win between the pipes.
Chandler Stephenson: Stephenson recorded the game-winning goal in the first period.
Jonathan Marchessult: Marchessault opened the scoring in Arizona with his team-leading 26th goal of the year.
Nic Hague: Hague tallied his second goal of the season to help Vegas to the victory.
VGK STATS OF THE KNIGHT
Jonathan Marchessault (0:19) scored the fifth-fastest goal in franchise history, behind William Karlsson (0:10 on April 28, 2021 & :014 on Nov. 24, 2018), Keegan Kolesar (0:12 on Oct. 15, 2022) and Max Pacioretty (0:18 on March 15, 2019).
Nic Roy added a helper to the score sheet in the first period to extend his point streak to six games (3G, 7A), the longest such streak of his career.
Chandler Stephenson potted a goal in his 300th game as a Golden Knight. He is just the seventh player to record 300 games with Vegas.
With the win, the Vegas Golden Knights earned their first ever victory in Mullett Arena.
Every VGK skater recorded a shot on goal against the Arizona Coyotes.
BECAUSE VGK WON...
When the Golden Knights win, you win! Get 31% off menu priced pizzas at Pizza Hut the day after every win using code VGKWINS on PizzaHut.com.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Vegas Golden Knights return home for a matchup against the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena for Lunar New Year Knight and Alex Pietrangelo's 1,000th career game. Tune in on Vegas 34, stream on KnightTime+, or listen live on the Vegas Golden Knights Radio Network on 98.9/1340.
