Pacioretty, Golden Knights hold off Flyers

Max Pacioretty scored two goals, Shea Theodore had a goal and an assist and Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 34 saves, including one on a penalty shot, as the Vegas Golden Knights won their third straight game, 5-4, over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in Las Vegas. Jon Merrill and Cody Glass also scored for Vegas, which had to kill a 6-on-3 advantage in the final 1:29 to hold on for the win. Paul Stastny added two assists.

Sean Couturier had two goals and an assist, Claude Giroux added a goal and an assist and Travis Konecny also scored for Philadelphia. Carter Hart made 28 saves. Giroux gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at the 7:33 mark of the first period, one-timing a Jakub Voracek pass in the slot for his 13th goal of the season.

Vegas answered with three goals over a span of 2:45. Theodore got the first with a wrist shot from the right circle for his sixth goal of the season. Pacioretty followed 86 seconds later with a power-play goal, flipping in a rebound of a Stastny shot from underneath the right circle. Merrill, a defenseman playing forward for the first time in 13 years, then made it 3-1 with his first goal in 52 games, dating back to March 1, backhanding a rebound of a Nicolas Roy shot.

Flyers center Scott Laughton then was hooked on a breakaway by Nick Holden and awarded a penalty shot. Fleury stopped his forehand try with his right pad to improve to 4-for-4 in stopping penalty shots with Vegas. Konecny then cut it to 3-2 with his 12th goal when he rushed around Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt on the left-wing and beat Fleury on his glove side. But Pacioretty answered with his 18th goal of the season to cap the first four-goal first period of the season for Vegas.

Glass made it 5-2 midway through the second period when he fired a wrist shot past a Stastny screen for his fifth goal of the season. But the Flyers, behind two goals by Couturier, closed to with 5-4 early in the third period. Philadelphia had a good chance to tie it when Reilly Smith was called for a delay-of-game penalty with 2:46 left. Hart was pulled 52 seconds later, and Deryk Engelland was called for cross-checking with 1:29 to go for a 6-on-3 advantage, but the Flyers managed just a Giroux shot on goal, which Fleury gloved.

--Field Level Media