Mrazek makes 23 saves, Hurricanes top Golden Knights

RALEIGH, N.C. --Justin Faulk had a goal and an assist, and Petr Mrazek made 23 saves for the Carolina Hurricanes in a 5-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at PNC Arena on Friday.

Nino Niederreiter scored, and Justin Williams had two assists for the Hurricanes (25-20-6), who are 3-0-1 in their past four games and 10-3-1 in their past 14.
"I thought it was a real solid effort," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "The execution level wasn't great, but the effort level was high."
WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Shea Theodore scored twice for the Golden Knights (29-20-4), who have lost three in a row and five of their past seven. Maxime Lagace made 27 saves in his first game of the season after being recalled from Chicago of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.
"We didn't play good enough to win, bottom line," Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. "[The Hurricanes] were the better team."
Each team was playing its first game following its mandatory five-day break after 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend.
Theodore gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 5:01 of the first period, scoring on a one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Nate Schmidt on the power play.

"We played pretty good for the first 20 minutes of the game and that's about it," Schmidt said.
Niederreiter tied it 1-1 at 11:13, scoring from the low slot after Williams made a centering pass with his right skate. Niederreiter has five goals in five games with Carolina since being acquired in a trade from the Minnesota Wild on Jan. 17.
"He fits in great," Brind'Amour said. "We knew he was a good player. He has fit in extremely well and contributing the way he is makes it a lot better."
Faulk had an assist on the play to give him 241 NHL points, passing Dave Babych for the most by a defenseman in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history.

Brett Pesce scored 47 seconds into the second period to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead. Lagace made a diving poke-check on Sebastian Aho's centering pass, but the puck went to Pesce, who pinched in and shot into an open net.
"I just dove for the puck because [Williams] was on a breakaway," Lagace said. "Obviously, I could have stayed [and tried to] make the stop, but those quick decisions in games ... I made the play and it didn't go my way."

Theodore tied it 2-2 at 17:47, but Jordan Martinook scored 36 seconds later on a 2-on-1 off a pass from Brock McGinn to make it 3-2.
Aho skated down the right wing and scored with a backhand from a sharp angle to put the Hurricanes ahead 4-2 at 3:51 of the third period. Faulk extended the lead to 5-2 with an empty-net goal with 50 seconds remaining.
"We've been starting games on time and we've been preparing ourselves for games," Aho said. "We do so many details better than we did early in the year. When you get those wins, you start believing more. Like, this is the way we have to do it every night."

They said it

"It seemed like we didn't have too much of a connection tonight. We just have to focus up and be a little bit sharper. The decision making as a group wasn't good enough. They were pretty hard on the forecheck and that shut us down quite a bit. We have to do a better job of adjusting and figure out another way to get out (of the defensive zone)." -- Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore

"We maybe had five minutes where we didn't play our hockey. Coming out of a break, that's a good one to build off of. Especially the way we were playing before the break, not to take a step back is big for this group." -- Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook

Need to know

William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault each finished minus-3. ... Martinook's goal was his 11th of the season, tying his NHL career high, which he set with the Arizona Coyotes in 2016-17. … Faulk had an NHL career-best plus-5 rating. … Aho has seven points (two goals, five assists) in a four-game point streak. … Jaccob Slavin has six assists in a four-game point streak. … Carolina has scored at least four goals in nine of its past 13 games.

What's next

Golden Knights: At the Florida Panthers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes:Host the Calgary Flames on Sunday (2 p.m. ET; SN360, FS-SE, NHL.TV)