Vegas Suffers 4-2 Loss in Pittsburgh

Tomas Nosek scored his first goal of the season and Reilly Smith buried his 100th career goal, but those two tallies weren't enough for the Vegas Golden Knights as a Phil Kessel hat trick propelled the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-2 victory Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena.
HOW IT WENT DOWN
For the first time since Jonathan Marchessault's first period goal during the home opener, the Golden Knights jumped out to a 1-0 lead, thanks to an early goal from Nosek. Marchessault got a couple of Penguins to follow him around the offensive zone before snapping a pass to Nosek who pulled the puck to his backhand and slipped it by goalie Casey DeSmith. But less than two minutes later, Kessel capitalized on a faceoff win by Evgeni Malkin to tie the game with a hard wrist shot. Kessel took off on a breakaway for his second goal of the game. Before the end of the second, Kessel scored on another breakaway to complete the hat trick. Jake Guentzel put the Penguins up by three heading into the second intermission. Smith potted his 100th career goal to bring the score to 4-2, but Vegas didn't have anything more in the tank as the Penguins won the game by two.

TOP PERFORMERS
Reilly Smith: Smith hit the 100-goal mark in the third to put a silver lining on the loss.
Jonathan Marchessault: With two assists against Pittsburgh, Marchessault extended his team lead in points with six points (2G, 4A) through five games.
Phil Kessel: His sixth-career hat trick was the story of the game as he was in charge offensively all night.
Evgeni Malkin: Malkin's playmaking abilities were on display as he recorded three assists in the game.
TAKEAWAYS
The Chances Are There: Vegas is yet to be outshot in a game this season, but the scoring chances need to turn into goals in order to turn these losses into wins.
Disciplined Hockey:The Golden Knights only had five giveaways to Pittsburgh's 12 throughout the game and only sent one player to the penalty box.