Eichel has goal, assist for Golden Knights in win against Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. --Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 5-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.

Eichel had been held without a point in the previous six games and had one point in nine.
"It looked like he had his burst back, so I don't know if the break did him some good in terms of the injury he had earlier this year or not," Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. "No idea, but it sure looked like he had some jump back."

Jonathan Marchessault had two assists for Vegas (31-18-4), which has won two in a row after going 0-2-2 in its previous four.
Logan Thompson allowed one goal on 24 shots before leaving at 1:19 of the third period with an apparent lower-body injury after stretching out on a save. Adin Hill made four saves in relief.
"He's moving around, but we'll get an MRI in the morning," Cassidy said of Thompson. "We'll have a much better idea and hopefully we get good news. I mean, we've been injured at every position this year, so it almost feels like, hopefully, this is a quick one, but I don't know until tomorrow."
Kirill Kaprizov scored to extend his point streak to eight games for Minnesota (27-20-4), which has lost three in a row, including 4-1 at the Dallas Stars on Wednesday.
"We can't be happy with our efforts here, but you've got to turn it around as quick as possible," Wild captain Jared Spurgeon said. "We have a great opportunity here, with the homestand, to get rolling again. We can't be pouting, there's a lot of hockey left.
"We're not playing our best, and it definitely isn't our best hockey when we're losing games like this, where we're making mistakes we weren't making earlier when we were winning games. We've got to get back to that."
Marc-Andre Fleury allowed five goals on 23 shots and was pulled after the second period. Filip Gustavsson made eight saves in relief.
"There's no blame for Marc-Andre Fleury, and his teammates said that in between the second and third period," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "Exactly that. Everybody knows what happened."

Nicolas Roy gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 7:07 of the first period with wrist shot from the high slot that deflected off Minnesota defenseman Calen Addison's skate.
Alex Pietrangelo took advantage of a turnover at the blue line by Marcus Foligno and increased the lead 2-0 at 2:41 of the second period with a shot from the top of the right face-off circle.
"The last month, it seems like we haven't been taking advantage of [opponent's mistakes], and we just kept on trying to grind and do the right things, and we're starting to get rewarded," Vegas forward Reilly Smith said. "So, we've just got to keep that positivity going and the work ethic and hopefully we can keep on building too."
Kaprizov cut it to 2-1 just 13 seconds into a power play at 4:37, sweeping in a loose puck on a rebound of a Joel Eriksson Ek shot attempt. Kaprizov has 10 points (four goals, six assists) during his point streak.
Eichel fed an open Paul Cotter in the slot to put the Golden Knights ahead 3-1 at 10:47.
"You want to try and separate yourself," Eichel said. "They get that power-play goal, and you just want to work to get that next goal, and I thought we did a good job doing that. You want to play with a lead. You don't want to sit back and let them get back in the game. I thought we pressed to get the next goal, and we were able to get a few."

Smith was awarded a penalty shot after Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski hooked him on a breakaway and scored when his shot from the slot trickled between Fleury's pads for a 4-1 lead at 12:53.
"We had a good second half of the first and the [power play] was big getting us back in the game," Fleury said. "They just kept coming and getting some goals, and that was it."
Eichel scored 20 seconds later, skating along the right side and scoring on a wrist shot at 13:13 for the 5-1 final.
NOTES: The Golden Knights became the first team to have two penalty-shot goals this season. The last team to score more in a single season was the San Jose Sharks in 2018-19 (three). … Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin missed a second straight game with a lower-body injury. … Kaprizov's 14th power-play goal ties his NHL career high set last season. Only Edmonton Oilers forwards Leon Draisaitl (17) and Connor McDavid (16) have more this season. … Eriksson Ek had an assist, his 100th in the NHL. … Fleury played his 972nd game to pass Terry Sawchuk for fourth in NHL history behind Martin Brodeur (1,226), Roberto Luongo (1,044) and Patrick Roy (1,029).