Ivan Barbashev scored two goals and had two assists and Keegan Koles also made twice when Vegas Golden Knights Band a team record with five goals during the first period and then continued for a wild 7-5 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday evening in Las Vegas.
It was the third career’s four -point game for Barbashev and others of the season. Tomas Hertl had a goal and one assist, Brett Howden had three assists and Nicolas Hague and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored for Vegas, which expanded their Pacific Division to four points over Edmonton Oilers.
Ilya Samsonov made 17 rescues for Golden Knights, which scored five goals over a period for the fourth time in team history.
Nick Foligno, Colton Dach, Ethan del Mastro, Ilya Mikheyev and Philipp Kurashev scored, Connor Murphy had three assists and Frank Nazar added two assists for Chicago, who lost his fifth straight match.
Arvid Soderblom finished with 16 rescues after Starter Petr Mrazek was drawn to allow five goals of 15 shots during the opening period.
Vegas only needed 66 seconds to take a 1-0 lead. Kolesar’s wrist shot from the right circle sounded off the near post after TJ Brodie’s turnover in its own zone. It was Kolesar’s first goal since January 12 and snapped a 15-game point dryer.
Foligno band it 1-1 on the 6: 58 mark when he put in a recovery of his own cover attempt.
The Hague then put Vegas back in front to stop only 1:59 later, with a recovery of the Howrd shot in an open net. Barbashev made it 3-1 with a Power-play goal when he redirected Alex Pietrangelo’s points.
Hertl followed another power-play goal and ripped a one-hour from the high place from Jack Eichel’s pass. It was the 51st assistant for the Eichel season and broke the team record that David Perron sat 2017-18. Dorofeyev extended the lead to 5-1 with his team-leading 24th goal.
Chicago lowered it to 5-3 early in the second period on target by Dach and Del Mastro. Kolesar put Vegas back up with three goals halfway through the period with a recovery of Barbashev’s shot that passed away from the post.
The Blackhawks scored on the following shots by Mikheyev and Kurashev early in the third period to close within a goal, 6-5. Barbashev redirected the Howth’s points that shot out outside Seth Jones skating with 4:15 to go to seal the victory.
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