Karlsson scores twice as Knights ground Jets
LAS VEGAS -- Center William Karlsson scored two goals, including one short-handed, and David Perron and Luca Sbisa each had a goal and an assist to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena.
James Neal scored his ninth goal of the season and Maxime Lagace stopped 24 shots to pick up his second win in seven games in net for the Golden Knights (10-5-1), who improved to 7-1-0 at home.
Patrik Laine and Adam Lowry each scored for Winnipeg (8-4-3), which had an eight-game unbeaten streak snapped. It was the fourth straight game that Laine, who has eight goals, has scored.
Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck, who came in as the only goalie in the NHL that has made 10 starts without a regulation loss (8-0-2), suffered his first loss of the season. He was replaced after two periods by Steve Mason after stopping just 16 shots.
The Jets, who had scored first in six straight games, saw that streak snapped when Sbisa slapped in a shot from the left point just 6:41 into the contest. Perron extended the Golden Knights' lead to 2-0 when he wristed in a shot from the right circle for his fifth goal of the season.
Lowry cut the lead to 2-1 when he redirected a Dmitry Kulikov shot past Lagace. Karlsson answered midway through the second period when, left all alone in front of the net, he easily tapped in a rebound of defenseman Deryk Engelland's shot from the right point.
Laine then rocketed in a slap shot from the left point on a power play to draw Winnipeg to within 3-2, but Vegas quickly answered when Neal, who had gone to the bench to get a new stick, intercepted a Kulikov pass to the left of the net and rifled a shot into the top right corner. Karlsson then added a short-handed goal 62 seconds later to make it 5-2 when Reilly Smith stole the puck in the Jets' zone and found him all alone breaking away near center ice.
NOTES: Winnipeg traveled to Arizona afterward where it will face the Coyotes on Saturday night in the front half of a home-and-home set. The Jets host Arizona on Tuesday night when Dale Hawerchuk will be inducted into the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame. ... Vegas also hit the road for a two-game Canadian trip that begins Tuesday night in Edmonton. ... Vegas outscored the Jets, 3-1, in the second has now outscored opponents, 24-10, in that period this season. ... The Golden Knights improved to 5-1 when scoring first. ... D Ben Chiarot, LW Brendan Lemieux and C Marko Dano were scratches for Winnipeg while LW Brendan Leipsic, D Jon Merrill and D Shea Theodore were scratched by Vegas.