William Carrier, Chandler Stephenson and Phil Kessel each had a goal and an assist, and the visiting Vegas Golden Knights held the Nashville Predators to a season-low 17 shots on goal en route to a 5-1 victory on Tuesday night.
Michael Amadio also scored, and Alex Pietrangelo added an empty-netter as Vegas returned from the All-Star break to snap a 0-2-2 skid.
Adin Hill didn’t work too hard in stopping 16 shots to record his career-high 11th win. The Predators’ 17 shots were the fewest yielded by the Golden Knights this season.
Meanwhile, it was the third time this season that Nashville failed to record at least 20 shots. Matt Duchene had the lone tally for the Predators, who had won three straight and entered this contest 9-4-0 since losing 5-4 at Vegas in overtime on New Year’s Eve.
Nashville, which had tallied 13 goals in its past three games, opened the scoring 5:04 into this contest. Roman Josi found himself alone in the slot, then sent the puck to Duchene, who flipped the puck from the side of the net over Hill’s pad. It was Duchene’s fourth goal in four games.
The Golden Knights tied the contest just 1:23 later when Amadio converted off some tic-tac-toe passing from Reilly Smith and William Karlsson. Then 27 seconds after that, Carrier broke free and beat Nashville netminder Juuse Saros (25 saves), to extend his career-high goal total to 13 and give Vegas a 2-1 edge.
Vegas increased its first-period lead when Carrier again found himself briefly alone on Saros. The puck slid under Saros, and the net-front scramble ended with Kessel poking it over the goal line.
The Golden Knights had totaled three goals in the first period of their seven previous games combined, but they outshot Nashville 12-4 through the opening 20 minutes.
Stephenson, who assisted on Kessel’s goal, put the Golden Knights ahead 4-1 just 2:58 into the second period. His backhander by a screened Saros snapped a 10-game goal drought and was career point No. 200.
–Field Level Media
