Tuesday, January 8, 2019 10:00 PM (ET)

Knights stay hot, drop struggling Rangers

Field Level Media
Jan 9, 2019

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 shots to pick up his league-leading 25th victory, and Brandon Pirri scored his seventh goal in eight games to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to their seventh straight victory 4-2 over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

Cody Eakin, Jonathan Marchessault and Ryan Carpenter also scored goals for Vegas, which moved into a tie with idol Calgary for first place in the Pacific Division with 58 points. The Flames have two games in hand.

Fleury also extended his consecutive starts streak without a regulation loss to 12 games (9-0-3).

The seven-game winning streak is the second longest in team history for Vegas, which won eight in a row en route to the Western Conference championship last season.

Mika Zibanejad scored his 12th goal of the season and Jesper Fast netted his sixth for New York. Alexandar Georgiev had 27 saves for the Rangers, who lost their fourth straight game, getting outscored 22-5 during that span.

Eakin gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at the 16:02 mark of the first period with his 13th goal of the season. He broke in alone at the blue line after taking a no-look backhand pass from Alex Tuch, and he fired a wrist shot past Georgiev's blocker side.

Pirri, recalled from Chicago on Monday where he was leading the AHL in scoring, made it 2-0 early in the second period with his 10th in 10 career games with Vegas. Max Pacioretty one-timed a shot from the right circle that caromed off the far post and Pirri then tapped in the rebound, snapping an 0-for-17 drought for the Golden Knights on the power play.

Seconds after Fleury made a pair of point-blank saves on Cody McLeod, Marchessault increased the Vegas lead to 3-0 with his 14th goal of the season at 18:53 of the middle period. Marchessault scooped up a loose puck near center ice and then broke in and beat Georgiev with a wrist shot to his blocker side.

Zibanejad cut it to 3-1 midway through the third period, putting in a crossing pass from Mats Zuccarello into a wide-open left side of the net.

The Rangers pulled Georgiev with 2:30 remaining, and Carpenter then sealed the win with an empty-netter with 1:20 to go.

Fast scored with 23 seconds left.

--Field Level Media

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