3 takeaways from Knights’ win: Point streak extended to 5 games

Bruce Cassidy said before the start of the season that it’s important for the Golden Knights to bank points as early as they can.

Although the Knights have now done that for five straight games, doing so the way they did Thursday night against the Boston Bruins wasn’t in the cards.

The Knights nearly squandered a three-goal lead in the third period but held on to win 6-5 over the Bruins at T-Mobile Arena.

“This was one of our more — it might sound funny, 6-5 — complete games, especially offensively,” Cassidy said. “I thought we were the better team for most of the night.”

Center William Karlsson scored twice, once shorthanded and another on the power play, for his first goals of the season. The power-play tally gave the Knights a 6-3 lead 2:19 into the third.

The Bruins responded with two goals in 1:07 from right wings Mark Kastelic (4:05) and Michael Eyssimont (5:12) to cut the lead to one.

But the Knights (3-0-2) held on to extend their point streak to five games and win for the third time in four games.

Captain Mark Stone had three assists, and center Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist to give him a league-high 11 points.

Knights goaltender Akira Schmid improved to 3-0 with 19 saves despite giving up a season-high in goals.

“Obviously you don’t want it to be that close, but that’s hockey and that’s life,” defenseman Zach Whitecloud said. “Excited for the guys. We did a good job in a lot of areas.”

Here are three takeaways from the win:

1. Special teams shine

The Knights’ power play has gotten most of the attention, and why wouldn’t it? It’s the fourth-best unit in the league at 28.6 percent.

It capitalized again Thursday. Center Tomas Hertl’s goal 6:35 into the second that increased the lead to 4-2 was the team’s first power-play goal not scored by left wing Pavel Dorofeyev this season.

The Knights went 2-for-6 on the man advantage.

It’s the penalty kill that’s drawn the ire at 66.7 percent, the sixth-worst number in the league.

Bruins right wing David Pastrnak scored a power-play goal, but the Knights redeemed themselves when Karlsson scored a shorthanded goal at 18:24 of the second.

Stone intercepted a centering pass to start a two-on-one. Stone’s shot rang off the post, but Karlsson pounced on the rebound for his first goal.

“Turned out to be huge goals,” Karlsson said of his tallies.

The Knights had a chance to put the game away much earlier than they did.

They wasted a four-minute power play with 1:30 of that coming at five-on-three. Boston’s penalty kill entered the game 14-of-14 to start the season.

Karlsson’s goal capped off a four-goal second period with the Knights counting for three of them.

2. First goal allowed again

The Knights needed another rally to secure the two points, as they allowed the first goal for the fifth consecutive game.

Left wing Tanner Jeannot pounced on a rebound off defenseman Charlie McAvoy’s shot from the right circle 2:05 into the game.

Dorofeyev responded 1:30 later with his league-leading sixth goal of the season to tie it 1-1.

Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov restored the Boston lead at 16:44, but left wing Cole Reinhardt scored the second goal of his career at 18:33.

Jeannot’s goal was a net-front battle, but it’s one Cassidy was content with given how it barely crossed the goal line.

“It’s a little bit of what Boston does,” the former Bruins coach said.

Though the Knights fell behind, they controlled play through most of the game. That’s something they weren’t able to say in the first four.

The team put 37 shots on Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman — Eichel had a team-high nine on goal — and had 75 attempts in total.

“We gave up the first goal again, but we answered right away,” Cassidy said. “We took it to Boston in a lot of different areas.”

3. Hill backs up

No. 1 goaltender Adin Hill was Schmid’s backup Thursday night after suffering a lower-body injury against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.

Hill fell awkwardly after taking a shot off the mask in the first period. He played the entire 20 minutes but didn’t return. Schmid stopped all 19 shots he faced in the final 40 minutes for the 4-2 win.

Schmid played fine through the two periods Thursday night, but Boston’s third-period goals were ones that he’d like to have back.

This was a scheduled start for Schmid regardless of Hill’s health, but that opens the door for Hill to return to the starter’s crease Saturday when the Flames visit T-Mobile Arena.

But while Schmid stayed undefeated, it wasn’t a sign of confidence considering the Knights signed goaltender Carter Hart to a professional tryout deal Thursday.

The PTO will turn into an NHL contract when Hart is eligible to play for the Knights on Dec. 1. Expectations are it’s to be a two-year deal.

Any start Schmid gets from now until December will be magnified with Hart soon on the horizon.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.