Smith, special teams help Golden Knights top Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Reilly Smith had two goals, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 at United Center on Thursday.

Chandler Stephenson and Phil Kessel scored, and William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault each had two assists for the Golden Knights (22-9-1), who scored on the power play and short-handed in their fourth straight road win.
Logan Thompson made 24 saves, including 11 in the third period, for his first win in three starts (1-2-0).
"I think a lot of road games, you have to have that [workmanlike] mindset," Smith said. "[The Blackhawks] did a really good job in the third period, upping the tempo. They had a lot of good chances. 'LT' did a really good job in being able to find pucks and keep them out."

Taylor Raddysh scored, Jonathan Toews had an assist, and Arvid Soderblom made 21 saves for the Blackhawks (7-17-4), who have lost five in a row and 13 of their past 14 (1-12-1).
"I thought the first period was really good," Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. "The way we played I thought was a good team effort. We got a lot of pucks behind their [defense]. We didn't get enough to the net, but I liked how we skated and we took the body a little more."
Stephenson gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 14:41 of the first period on a power play with a one-timer from the right face-off circle on a cross-crease pass from Mark Stone.
Smith extended it to 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 3:56 of the second period, scoring from the high slot after receiving a pass from Karlsson.
"I didn't do anything, 'Karl' did everything by himself," Smith said. "He picked off a pass, created a semi-breakaway for himself and won a puck battle against three guys and was able to find me in the slot."
Kessel made it 3-0 at 8:08 of the third when he received a pass from Daniil Miromanov in front of the net and his shot was carried in by Chicago forward Philipp Kurashev.

Raddysh cut it to 3-1 at 16:06 on a snap shot from the left circle before Smith scored an empty-net goal at 19:30 for the 4-1 final.
"We, at different points in every period, played pretty good," Raddysh said. "We kind of let them dictate the play for a bit there in the first, and then just a mistake by our line there in the third to give up the third one. A little too much to get back in the game."
Thompson made 27 saves in a 1-0 win against the Blackhawks on Oct 13. Chicago eliminated Vegas from playoff contention last season with a 4-3 shootout victory April 27.
"This was an exciting game for me," Thompson said regarding the win Thursday. "These guys finished our season last year, so I wanted to come out and have a good performance tonight."
Golden Knights forward Paul Cotter left the game with an upper-body injury following a hit by Blackhawks defenseman Jarred Tinordi at 15:02 of the second. He will be reevaluated in Las Vegas.
"I can't tell you how long, if at all, he'll be out," Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. "He didn't come back, so that's never a good sign."
Chicago forward Tyler Johnson, who returned to the lineup Tuesday after missing 20 games with an ankle injury, did not play in the third.
"He just got banged up, so we're going to have to wait and see," Richardson said. "He's seeing the trainers right now. If he's going to be available to play Friday at the Minnesota Wild], we'll have to wait until probably tomorrow to find out."
The third period was played without a TV timeout.
"Most of the time you like it because you're rolling in," Cassidy said. "But we were down a forward, so we were trying to juggle guys. When you're protecting a lead, guys tend to take shorter shifts. We had guys all over the place. Every combination we could imagine was out there, I think.
"Also, when you have the lead, you look up and it's like five minutes on the clock [without the TV timeouts
had one assist for his first NHL point in four games.