Marchessault scores twice for Golden Knights in win against Red Wings

DETROIT -- Jonathan Marchessault scored twice in a three-goal second period for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 4-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday.

"We really got rolling tonight," Marchessault said. "That's two games in a row where we've played the right way after a bad start to this road trip (two losses), and we got rewarded for it tonight."
William Karlsson had a goal and an assist for the Golden Knights (31-21-4), who have won two in a row after a four-game losing streak. Marc-Andre Fleury made 36 saves.
WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Red Wings highlights]
"I didn't like our first period, but the second period was a lot better and the third was good too," Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. "This road trip got off to a bad start, but we started playing the way we are capable of playing."
Gustav Nyquist, Michael Rasmussen and Thomas Vanek scored for Detroit (21-26-7), which was trying to match its season-best four-game winning streak. Jimmy Howard made 28 saves.
"We had a great first period but only came out of it with a one-goal lead," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "Then we make a series of mistakes in the second period and suddenly we're trying to fight from down two."
Nyquist gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at 11:19 of the first period, knocking in a puck that had trickled between Fleury's pads.
Marchessault tied it 1-1 at 2:04 of the second period, flipping in the rebound of Karlsson's shot on the power play.
Karlsson gave Vegas a 2-1 lead at 7:08, finishing off a 2-on-1 break with Paul Stastny, who had just come out of the penalty box.

"You always hope for a chance like that, but they only come around every couple years," Stastny said. "[Karlsson] … put a pass right on my tape. The way their defender was playing I knew I was going back to him and he put it away."
Marchessault added the top line's third goal of the period at 10:22, scoring when Howard couldn't control Smith's shot.
"We got a little too passive in the defensive zone," Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. "We had a decent start to the game, but we didn't carry it over to the second period."
Rasmussen, playing his first game after missing 10 with a hamstring injury, cut it to 3-2 with a power-play goal at 4:41 of the third.
Rasmussen was playing in the second half of a personal back-to-back, having finished a three-game conditioning stint with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.
"I felt OK tonight," he said. "Obviously, going down to Grand Rapids helped me a lot, but it is still tough to get going when you come back from an injury."

Brayden McNabb gave the Golden Knights a 4-2 lead at 11:07.
Vanek made it 4-3 at 19:57, tipping in Rasmussen's pass.
"I thought Thomas [Vanek] and [Rasmussen] were probably our two best forwards tonight, along with maybe [Andreas Athanasiou]," Blashill said. "They created a lot of chances out there. We just needed a couple more to go in."

They said it

"It was a matter of time before I was going to put them back together. They play well together, and tonight they really had some jump and scored some goals. It was nice to see." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant on reuniting Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith
"He's only 19 but he's already an elite net-front player in this league, and that alone is going to get him 20 or 25 goals a year if we do a good job of delivering the puck. The key for him has been improving the other parts of his game to earn the ice time he got tonight (14:57)." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on rookie forward Michael Rasmussen

Need to know

Karlsson's two-point game came after he had three points (one goal, two assists) in his past 14 games. … The Golden Knights play eight of their next nine games at home. … Rasmussen had the first multipoint game of his NHL career. … Nyquist has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in his past 12 games. … Vanek has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past eight games.

What's next

Golden Knights: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ATTSN-RM, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Red Wings: At the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; MSG-B, FS-D, NHL.TV)