Kessel gets hat trick in Penguins win against Golden Knights

PITTSBURGH -- Phil Kessel had a hat trick for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 4-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.

After Tomas Nosek gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 6:28 of the first period, Kessel scored three straight goals before Jake Guentzel gave the Penguins a three-goal lead late in the second period.
WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Penguins highlights]
The hat trick was Kessel's sixth in the NHL and first in 249 games with the Penguins. He had not scored three goals in a game since Feb. 1, 2014, for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 6-3 win against the Ottawa Senators.
"It's been awhile," Kessel said. "It felt good. Some good passes, and I was able to finish. ... Sometimes you cheat, sometimes you don't. The pucks found me, and I had two good plays."

Casey DeSmith made 35 saves for Pittsburgh in place of No. 1 goalie Matt Murray, who is day to day with a concussion. Evgeni Malkin had three assists.
"I thought [DeSmith] was the best player on the ice," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "He made some great saves for us, especially in that third period. He made some real timely saves for us."
The Penguins (2-1-0) allowed 11 goals in their first two games. Sullivan said he thought they made a more concerted effort to defend against the Golden Knights, but he wasn't completely satisfied.
"We're pleased we won and we got the result. I think our team is capable of getting to another level," Sullivan said. "I don't think we have the puck nearly as much as we need to have it in order for us to be at our best. ... I didn't think we had our swagger tonight like I know our team is capable of. That's when we're at our very best.
"That's what we have to get to in order for our team to get to the level we're capable of. But certainly, I think from an effort standpoint tonight, you could see they were trying to do the right things."
Malcolm Subban made 18 saves for Vegas (1-4-0), which has been outscored 19-10 in its first five games and lost three in a row.
"We just have to keep working and stay with it," Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. "We had a lot of good chances again tonight. The puck didn't go in the net until late in the game. So (we) have to stay with it and work hard. Sooner or later, it'll turn for us."

Nosek opened the scoring after Jonathan Marchessault carried the puck into the Penguins zone, turned away from Brian Dumoulin, and passed to Nosek charging toward the net. He took it and backhanded a shot past DeSmith.
Kessel tied it 1-1 with his first goal of the season at 8:03 on a wrist shot after Malkin won a face-off back to him.
Malkin set up Kessel again with a saucer pass that allowed Kessel to split defensemen Brayden McNabb and Colin Miller for a breakaway. Kessel took a snap shot over Subban's glove for his second goal, giving the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 9:37 of the second.
"Kessel, he's smart that way," McNabb said. "He'll cheat at opportunities. He made some good calls and some nice plays to get it to [Subban] too. At the end of the day, myself, I have to be back and aware of that."

Kessel completed the hat trick to make it 3-1 on another breakaway with a wrist shot under Subban's glove at 15:43 before Guentzel scored at 16:40 to put the Penguins up 4-1 on a snap shot set up by a backhand pass from Sidney Crosby.
Reilly Smith cut it to 4-2 with his 100th NHL goal at 13:35 of the third.

They said it

"We just have to stay positive. I mean, we've been generating, getting a lot of shots on net. Eventually, we're going to start getting some bounces. ... We just have to keep working hard and keep playing. Eventually, those bounces will start going our way." -- Golden Knights goalie Malcolm Subban
"That was a huge team effort against a really hungry team there in Vegas. They play hard, and we had to play hard to pull one out there. So I think that one leaves a good taste in everybody's mouth there leaving town here tomorrow. So definitely something to build on." -- Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith

Need to know

Golden Knights forward Tomas Hyka had three shots on goal and was minus-1 in 12:42 after being recalled from Chicago of the American Hockey League on Thursday. He replaced Oscar Lindberg at third-line right wing. ... Pittsburgh recalled goalie Tristan Jarry from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL to back up DeSmith with Murray unavailable. ... Defenseman Juuso Riikola made his NHL debut for Pittsburgh with Olli Maatta a healthy scratch. He had four hits and two blocked shots in 18:08.

What's next

Golden Knights: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; SN, NBCSP, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
Penguins: At the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CITY, TVAS, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)