Golden Knights ride to early lead, hold on vs. Coyotes

The Vegas Golden Knights scored three times in the first period in a 3-2 win against the host Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.

Jonathan Marchessault, Nicolas Hague and Chandler Stephenson scored for Vegas, which is 8-2-1 in its past 11 games. Adin Hill made 20 saves.

Jason Zucker and Clayton Keller scored for the Coyotes, who have lost four in a row. Connor Ingram allowed three goals on six shots before being replaced by Karel Vejmelka (28 saves) in the first period.

Marchessault gave Vegas a 1-0 lead 19 seconds into the first period. Ivan Barbashev carried the puck to the top of the left circle before feeding Marchessault, who was driving to the net and had an open net with Ingram unable to get back over in time.

Hague made it 2-0 for the visitors 58 seconds later. Brendan Brisson's backhand pass attempt from below the right circle hit the skate of Coyotes forward Michael Carcone and redirected to Hague above the slot for a shot through traffic that deflected off the stick of defenseman Michael Kesselring up and over Ingram.

Zucker deflected Juuso Valimaki's shot from the blue line past Hill's glove to cut the deficit to 2-1 at 4:07 on Arizona's first shot on goal.

Stephenson put the Golden Knights ahead 3-1 when he took a pass from Mark Stone to the inner edge of the left circle and scored short side at 6:17.

William Karlsson appeared to extend the lead to 4-1 on the power-play midway through the period, chasing Ingram. But the goal was overturned after video review showed Karlsson batted the puck into the net with his arm.

Keller pulled the Coyotes to within 3-2 at 3:40 of the third period. Nick Schmaltz banked the rebound of Vejmelka's save off the wall to Keller in the neutral zone for a breakaway, beating Hill with a wrist shot blocker side.

—Field Level Media