"It's a good win, they are a great challenge for us, the best team in the League," Fleury said. "We had a great game. The guys held the puck, took their timing away." Ondrej Palat scored for the Lightning (31-11-3), who lost consecutive home games for first time this season. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves. "Defensively it wasn't good," Tampa Bay defenseman Anton Stralman said. "We're not a good team if we don't work. They're a good team, I don't think they did anything remarkable. We didn't put up a fight and that's on us." Neal gave Vegas a 1-0 lead 56 seconds into the first period when he redirected a shot from Deryk Engelland. Schmidt put the Golden Knights ahead 2-0 at 16:03 with a shot from the top of the right circle. Palat made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 10:18 of the second period off a feed by Steven Stamkos. Nikita Kucherov had his 34th assist and leads the NHL with 61 points.
"We did look flat and we looked slower than them," Palat said. "First period was not very good, we were better in the second, but the third period was terrible. We have a tough road trip ahead of us and we've got to be better than that." Perron gave the Golden Knights a 3-1 lead at 17:43 with his 10th goal of the season, a shot from the hash marks to the far post around Stralman. Karlsson's 24th goal of the season made it 4-1 18 seconds into the third period off an assist from Jonathan Marchessault.
"We were ready. I wouldn't say it was our best game, but we played a simple, smart game," Marchessault said. "And we got the two points."
Goal of the game
Perron's goal at 17:43 of the second period.
Save of the game
Fleury's save on Kucherov at 17:09 of the second period.
Highlight of the game
Neal's goal at 0:56 of the first period.
They said it
"We would have liked to have been playing for first place in the League tonight but we had a couple of tough ones. But it was a good test and we were great all night, so now we'll get ready for Florida tomorrow." -- Golden Knights forward James Neal "I have to be a lot better and set an example. Our line didn't do that tonight, so I'll take responsibility for that. We're behind the eight ball to start games, which has been a trend as of late. It's too hard of a league to play from behind all the time." -- Lightning captain Steven Stamkos
Need to know
The Anaheim Ducks and Florida Panthers share the record for wins by an NHL expansion team with 33 in 84 games during the 1993-94 season. ... Vasilevskiy is 1-3-0 with 19 goals allowed in his past four starts. … Tampa Bay plays its next eight games on the road, surrounding the All-Star break (Jan. 26-29). … Vegas defeated Tampa Bay 4-3 on Dec. 19.
What's next
Golden Knights: At the Florida Panthers on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; SN360, TVA Sports, FS-F, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV) Lightning: At the Minnesota Wild on Saturday (9 p.m. ET; FS-N, SUN, NHL.TV)
