House wins again: Vegas flushes Blackhawks
LAS VEGAS -- Rookie Oscar Dansk, Vegas' third goaltender in only its eighth game, helped keep the expansion Golden Knights' dream start going in a 4-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Dansk, making his first career NHL start, finished with 29 saves as the Golden Knights (7-1-0) continued the best start of any expansion franchise in NHL history.
They became the 10th expansion team to own a four-game winning streak. Vegas can tie the record of five consecutive games won by an expansion team when it hosts the Colorado Avalanche on Friday to conclude its seven-game homestand. The Edmonton Oilers set the record in the 1979-80 season.
Chicago (5-3-2) and Vegas opened with a flurry of scoring in the first 5:46 of the game, but stellar defense and goaltending by Chicago's Corey Crawford and Dansk took over until the Golden Knights grabbed a 3-1 lead with 1:45 left in the second period.
Vegas right winger Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored that goal at even strength seven seconds after Chicago right winger Ryan Hartman returned from a double-minor for slashing and roughing.
Jonathan Marchessault, a Vegas forward playing his first game after returning from injured reserve, put the Golden Knights ahead 4-1 on a power-play goal with 9:40 remaining in the third period.
Chicago right winger Patrick Kane cut the lead to 4-2 by scoring with 1:05 left.
In the early-scoring barrage, Chicago center John Hayden netted a short-handed goal 3:33 into the game, but Vegas center William Karlsson answered with a power-play goal 26 seconds later.
The Golden Knights took a 2-1 lead 5:46 into the game when Crawford (29 saves) could not handle Vegas defender Deryk Engelland's wrist shot. Left winger Tomas Nosek jammed the rebound into the net for his second goal of the season.
NOTES: Vegas activated C Jonathan Marchessault (lower-body injury) from the injured list Monday and assigned F Vadim Shipachyov to the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League. Shipachyov appeared in three games with Vegas and had one goal in his first game after his call up from Chicago on Oct. 14. ... Among goaltenders with four or more games played entering Tuesday, Chicago's Corey Crawford led the NHL in save percentage at .951. ... Vegas G Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion), F Erik Haula (undisclosed injury), D Clayton Stoner (undisclosed) and G Malcolm Subban (lower-body injury) are on injured reserve. Fleury's return will be in days, not weeks, Vegas coach Gerard Gallant told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.