Vegas stays in playoff hunt with 6-1 win over Arizona

Updated Apr. 10, 2022 12:41 a.m. ET

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brayden McNabb scored a goal and assisted on two others and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-1 on Saturday night.

With the win, the Knights moved within two points of third-place Los Angeles in the Pacific Division. Both Vegas and LA have nine games remaining.

The Knights, who have won six of their last seven, moved into an eighth-place tie with Dallas in the Western Conference, each with 84 points. Dallas, however, has two games in hand.

Zach Whitecloud, Max Pacioretty, Evgenii Dadonov, Jake Leschyshyn and Jack Eichel also scored for Vegas, while Robin Lehner made 29 saves.

After a pedestrian performance in Wednesday’s 5-1 home loss to Vancouver, 12 skaters registered points for the Golden Knights.

Barrett Hayton scored the lone goal for the Coyotes. Karel Vejmelka stopped 33 shots.

Whitecloud opened the scoring when he skated in from the right point and sent a laser over Vejmelka’s shoulder in the far corner of the goal.

Just 17 seconds later, in his return after missing the last 12 games, Pacioretty gave Vegas a two-goal lead with his first goal since Feb. 20 at San Jose.

Arizona got on the board later in the period when Hayton skated into the zone with Michael Carcone for an odd-man rush. Carcone sent the puck across the slot and as he was falling down, Hayton beat Lehner to cut Vegas’ lead in half.

Dadonov pushed the lead back to two 40 seconds into the middle period when he took a pass from Shea Theodore, drove in alone and fired at Vejmelka, who appeared to glove the shot. But as it bounced off the top of his mitt, he reached back to snag it and the puck went in.

Leschyshyn and Eichel added the exclamation points late in the third period to provide the final margin.

Playing in his 400th career game, Eichel notched his 150th career goal.

UP NEXT

Arizona: Hosts New Jersey on Tuesday.

Vegas: Opens a three-game road trip in Vancouver on Tuesday.

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