Nosek's Go-Ahead Goal Lifts Vegas Past Kings, 4-1

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tomas Nosek scored in the second period and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 on Monday night.

Alec Martinez, Reilly Smith and Nicolas Hague also scored for Vegas, which has won 14 of 18 and improved to 14-2-1 at home. Jonathan Marchessault had two assists. Robin Lehner stopped 24 shots.

The Golden Knights have won six in a row, their longest win home winning streak in two years.

Matt Roy scored for Los Angeles and Jonathan Quick had 20 saves. Quick came into the game with a 6.05 goals-against average and .814 save percentage in two appearances against Vegas this season.

With the game tied 1-1, Nosek put the Golden Knights ahead after William Carrier started the attack by poking the puck loose in the neutral zone, chasing it down against the end boards, and sending it to Zach Whitecloud at the top. Whitecloud fired the puck off the end board and Nosek one-timed the ricochet past Quick to give Vegas a 2-1 lead.

Nosek now has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past seven games.

Los Angeles was playing its first game since Wednesday, its longest layoff this season, and the Kings came out looking awfully rested. By the midway point of the first period, they had outshot Vegas, 10-3, were outhustling the Golden Knights to pucks, and had established the advantage in the offensive zone early on.

Roy opened the scoring when he fired a laser from the high slot to beat Lehner.

After Quick made a couple of saves before ending up on his back during a bevy shots during a power play, Smith was in the right spot to bang home the equalizer, giving Vegas its first goal of the game and tying it at 1-all in the second period.

Less than two minutes after Nosek put Vegas on top, Marchessault served Hague for a perfect snapshot, which went off the post and into the net, giving Vegas three consecutive goals in the period.

Vegas closed the scoring when Martinez skated into the slot and cleaned up a loose rebound to ice the game to the delight of the announced capacity crowd of 3,950.

UP NEXT

The teams conclude their two-game series in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

(© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)