Pavel Dorofeyev scored two goals including the game-winner during a five-goal third period to lead the visiting Vegas Golden Knights to a 6-4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.
Colton Sissons and Reilly Smith each had a goal and an assist, Tanner Laczynski had three assists and Brandon Saad and Ivan Barbashev also scored for Vegas, which won its third straight game. Adin Hill made 15 saves and also had an assist, and Brayden McNabb and Braeden Bowman each added two assists for the Golden Knights.
Vegas played without five starters — center Jack Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanifin of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team and captain Mark Stone, forward Mitch Marner and defensemen Shea Theodore of Team Canada — who will join the squad for Friday’s road game against the Washington Capitals.
Quinton Byfield scored two goals, Artemi Panarin had two assists in his Kings debut and Adrian Kempe and Brandt Clarke each had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles, which lost its fourth straight game. Anton Forsberg finished with 19 saves and Andrei Kuzmenko added two assists for the Kings.
Vegas took a 1-0 lead at the 10:59 mark of the first period. Smith won a puck battle along the boards in the neutral zone and knocked the puck ahead to Tanner Laczynski to start a 2-on-1 break with Dorofeyev. Laczynski then fired a shot from the left wing that bounced off the end boards directly to Dorofeyev alone by the right goal post, where he put a wrist shot into an open net.
Los Angeles tied it later in the period on the power play when Panarin’s crossing pass into the slot caromed into the net off the skate of Byfield.
The Kings took a 2-1 lead near the end of the second period on a transition goal by Kempe, who finished a tic-tac-toe with Panarin and Kopitar with a wrist shot past Hill’s blocker side.
The Golden Knights tied it midway through the third period when Sissons backhanded in a rebound of a Bowman shot. Saad and Smith then gave Vegas a 4-2 lead with goals just 65 seconds apart.
Byfield cut the lead to 4-3 with 6:34 to go when he roofed a rebound from the left side of the crease. Dorofeyev then put Vegas back up by two goals with his 15th power-play goal of the season.
The Kings pulled Forsberg for an extra attacker and closed to 5-4 on a 6-on-5 goal by Clarke with 1:06 remaining, but Barbashev sealed the win with an empty-netter with 28 seconds left.
