Penguins score five straight, rally past Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- The Pittsburgh Penguins scored five unanswered goals to rally for a 5-3 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Monday.

Jason Zucker, who was playing his first game since Dec. 19 because of a lower-body injury, scored twice for the Penguins (23-10-5), who went 4-2-0 on a six-game road trip and are 13-2-0 in their past 15 games overall. Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Carter each had two assists, and Tristan Jarry made 23 saves
"We've played some really good hockey as of late. Pretty good road trip points-wise for us," Carter said. "It probably wasn't our best hockey, but we found ways to win hockey games, and that's what you need to do."

Evgenii Dadonov had a goal and an assist, and Robin Lehner made 32 saves for the Golden Knights (23-15-2), who are 1-3-2 in their past six games, all of which have come at home.
"You don't want to lose at home," Vegas captain Mark Stone said. "We pride ourselves on being a good home team. It's been a tough stretch for us against good teams, but you've got to find a way to get points."
Trailing 3-0 after the first period, Zucker cut it to 3-1 at 6:56 of the second with a power-play goal, jamming in a rebound near the right post.
Teddy Blueger then scored 49 seconds later off a rebound to cut it to 3-2.
Pittsburgh had the first 13 shots of the second period.
"Down 3-0 at the end of a long road trip, it would have been easy to start feeling sorry for ourselves and pack it in," Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson said. "We did the complete opposite."
Zucker tied it 3-3 when Kapanen's shot off a face-off win by Evgeni Malkin deflected in off his stick 28 seconds into the third period.
"I don't think our starts these past three games or so have been our best," Kapanen. "It's something we need to address, but just kind of trying to get the things moving again and just believing in our game."

Jake Guentzel gave the Penguins a 4-3 lead at 2:12 on a wraparound for his 20th goal of the season, and Sidney Crosby shot into an empty net at 18:52 for the 5-3 final.
"Every team in the league is going to blow a 3-0 lead at some point in the season. The key is what do you learn from it?" Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said. "That's a very good team over there, a very resilient team with veteran, great players. It comes down to little details at key moments in the game."
Chandler Stephenson gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 3:43 of the first period, scoring five-hole on a rush after receiving a cross-ice pass from Dadonov, who made it 2-0 at 12:12 with a deflection of Stone's point shot.
Nicolas Roy increased the lead to 3-0 at 19:30 when he got to the rebound of Alex Pietrangelo's point shot on the power play.
"Leading 3-0 after the first period, you can't walk away from the game with nothing," Stone said. "We've got a little soul-searching to do."
NOTES:Guentzel has scored at least 20 goals in each of the past five seasons. Since he made his NHL debut in 2016-17, only Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins, Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers and Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs (each with six) have done it more times. … Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore had an assist after missing one game in COVID-19 protocol. … Pietrangelo had two assists, giving him 499 points in the NHL (122 goals, 377 assists).