Thursday, January 2, 2020 10:00 PM (ET)

Pacioretty, Golden Knights hold off Flyers

Field Level Media
Jan 3, 2020

Max Pacioretty scored two goals, Shea Theodore had a goal and an assist and Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 34 saves, including one on a penalty shot, as the Vegas Golden Knights won their third straight game, 5-4, over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Jon Merrill and Cody Glass also scored for Vegas, which had to kill a 6-on-3 advantage in the final 1:29 to hold on for the win. Paul Stastny added two assists.

Sean Couturier had two goals and an assist, Claude Giroux added a goal and an assist and Travis Konecny also scored for Philadelphia. Carter Hart made 28 saves.

Giroux gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at the 7:33 mark of the first period, one-timing a Jakub Voracek pass in the slot for his 13th goal of the season.

Vegas answered with three goals over a span of 2:45. Theodore got the first with a wrist shot from the right circle for his sixth goal of the season.

Pacioretty followed 86 seconds later with a power-play goal, flipping in a rebound of a Stastny shot from underneath the right circle. Merrill, a defenseman playing forward for the first time in 13 years, then made it 3-1 with his first goal in 52 games, dating back to March 1, backhanding a rebound of a Nicolas Roy shot.

Flyers center Scott Laughton then was hooked on a breakaway by Nick Holden and awarded a penalty shot. Fleury stopped his forehand try with his right pad to improve to 4-for-4 in stopping penalty shots with Vegas.

Konecny then cut it to 3-2 with his 12th goal when he rushed around Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt on the left wing and beat Fleury on his glove side. But Pacioretty answered with his 18th goal of the season to cap the first four-goal first period of the season for Vegas.

Glass made it 5-2 midway through the second period when he fired a wrist shot past a Stastny screen for his fifth goal of the season. But the Flyers, behind two goals by Couturier, closed to with 5-4 early in the third period.

Philadelphia had a good chance to tie it when Reilly Smith was called for a delay-of-game penalty with 2:46 left. Hart was pulled 52 seconds later, and Deryk Engelland was called for cross-checking with 1:29 to go for a 6-on-3 advantage, but the Flyers managed just a Giroux shot on goal, which Fleury gloved.

--Field Level Media

Covers 25 Years Logo Established in 1995,
Covers is the world
leader in sports
betting information.
Covers is verified safe by: Evalon Logo GPWA Logo GDPR Logo GeoTrust Logo Evalon Logo