Red-hot Karlsson, Golden Knights too much for Coyotes
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Tomas Nosek scored short-handed to start a Vegas run of three goals scored three different ways in less than two minutes, and the expansion Golden Knights won their fifth in a row, holding off the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 on Saturday night.
William Karlsson also stayed hot with his third goal in two games and his seventh during a five-game goal-scoring streak as the Golden Knights improved to 3-0 against Arizona and became the first NHL expansion franchise to have a pair of five-game winning streaks in its inaugural season. Vegas also won five straight from Oct. 15-27.
Arizona, down 3-0 after the second period, finally scored against Vegas backup goalie Malcolm Subban when defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored his third goal in five games 21 seconds into the third.
Vegas later killed off an Arizona 5-on-3 power play lasting 1:25 -- the Coyotes were 0-for-5 on the power play -- but Brendan Perlini got the Coyotes to within a goal with a deftly executed one-man rush from the neutral zone. Skating through three defenders, Perlini beat Subban with an inside-out move at 10:35 -- his eighth goal and his fourth in as many games to make it 3-2.
Subban, who missed the previous 13 games with a lower-body injury, stopped 23 of 25 shots in only his seventh NHL game and got the win despite his shaky third period.
The Coyotes had won four of their previous five after dropping 18 of their first 20, but were shut down offensively for the first two periods after an apparent Jason Demers goal in the first period was waved off because Derek Stepan bumped Subban in the crease.
Nosek got the Knights' scoring surge going in the second period, stealing the puck off Ekman-Larsson's stick with the Coyotes on the power play and going on a nearly end-to-end rush to beat Scott Wedgewood with a wrist shot at 7:23 of the second.
Karlsson, who scored twice Friday against San Jose in a 5-4 victory, scored his ninth in seven games only 31 seconds later -- a one-timer off a Jonathan Marchessault faceoff win.
After Arizona drew a penalty for too many men on the ice, Erik Haula put in a rebound of a Marchessault shot on the power play at 9:05, his seventh goal.
Arizona coach Rick Tocchet then lifted Wedgewood, who made 14 saves, for Marek Langhamer, an emergency callup from Tucson (AHL) who had played in only one other NHL game, and he stopped all 10 shots he faced.
Vegas had a chance to put it away when Demers drew a high-sticking double minor at 12:21 of the third, but couldn't score during the four-minute power play. Marchessault finished off a three-point night with an empty-net goal with two seconds remaining, with Karlsson assisting.
NOTES: Both teams played for the third time in four nights. ... Vegas G Malcolm Subban started for the first time since Oct. 21; he sat out 13 games with a lower-body injury. ... Golden Knights G Marc-Andre Fleury, who beat Arizona twice in the first three games in Vegas franchise history, remains out with a concussion. ... Vegas LW David Perron (upper-body injury), injured Friday against San Jose, sat out. ... Vegas has three short-handed goals in its first 22 NHL games.