Alex Tuch scored two first-period goals and Malcolm Subban finished with 29 saves to lead the visiting Vegas Golden Knights to their third consecutive win, 4-1, over the New York Rangers on Monday night.
It was Tuch's third career two-goal game. Reilly Smith and Max Pacioretty also scored goals for the Golden Knights, who improved to 4-1-0 in franchise history against the Rangers. It marked the first time this season that Vegas has won three games in a row, all with Subban in net.
Brendan Lemieux scored for New York, which had a five-game points streak snapped (4-0-1). Henrik Lundqvist finished with 28 saves in defeat.
Tuch scored two goals just 2:16 apart to give Vegas an early 2-0 lead. The first came at the 1:34 mark of the first period when he came streaking in on the left wing and ripped a shot that trickled past Lundqvist and on to the blue ice behind him where the Rangers' goaltender inadvertently knocked the puck in with his left pad.
Vegas, which was just 1-for-14 on the power play over its previous five games, then made it 2-0 with a power-play goal when Tuch tapped in a feed from Nate Schmidt while cutting in front of the net for his fourth goal of the season and third in two games.
Shortly after Rangers forward Chris Kreider rang a shot off the crossbar, Smith made it 3-0 early in the second period with his team-leading 12th goal of the season when he broke loose on a breakaway and beat Lundqvist with a backhand.
Pacioretty increased the lead to 4-0 just 96 seconds later with another power-play goal when he one-timed a pass through the crease by Cody Glass from the bottom of the right circle for his 10th goal of the season.
Lemieux cut it to 4-1 near the end of the second period when, while cutting in front of the net, he deflected Jacob Trouba's shot from the top of the right circle into the top left corner for his fourth goal of the season.
--Field Level Media
