Tomas Hertl scored the eighth hat trick of his career and Jack Eichel had a goal and three assists to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 6-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
It was the second hat trick over a seven-game span for Hertl. Mark Stone had a goal and two assists, Ivan Barbashev added two assists and Nicolas Roy also scored for Vegas (41-20-8, 90 points). Adin Hill made 28 saves for the Golden Knights, who increased their Pacific Division lead to five points over Edmonton and Los Angeles.
Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists, Dylan Larkin had two assists and Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat also scored for Detroit (32-31-6, 70 points), who lost for the ninth time in the last 11 games and for the sixth straight time on the road. Cam Talbot finished with 30 saves.
Detroit took a 1-0 lead at the 4:47 mark of the first period on a power-play goal by Raymond, whose crossing pass deflected into the net off the stick off Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.
Vegas tied it midway through the period on Hertl’s backdoor power-play goal. The Golden Knights then took control with two more goals near the end of the period. Hertl got the first when he stuck his stick out and directed a Brayden McNabb point shot through Talbot’s pads. Roy made it 3-1 when he broke in on the right wing and fired a wrist shot past Talbot with just 2.1 seconds left in the period.
Kane, alone by the right post, cut the deficit to 3-2 at the 1:49 mark of the second period with a power-play goal, roofing a rebound of a Moritz Seider shot. But Vegas responded with two goals in the span of 55 seconds to increase its lead to 5-2. Stone got the first with a rebound into the left side of the net and Hertl followed with his 30th goal to complete the hat trick, slamming a Stone crossing pass inside the right post on the power play.
Hertl had a chance for a fourth goal early in the third period when he stole the puck from Seider at the blue line and went in on a breakaway but his backhand try clanged off the right post.
DeBrincat cut the lead to 5-3 midway through the period when he whipped a wrist shot from the middle of the right circle over Hill’s glove and inside the top right corner of the net.
The Red Wings pulled Talbot for an extra attacker with 3:40 remaining and Eichel sealed the win with an empty-netter with 2:01 to go.
