3 takeaways from the Golden Knights’ win over the Blackhawks

Three takeaways from the Golden Knights’ 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday:

1. International Line.

The trio of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Tomas Nosek and William Carrier are considered the “fourth” line for the Knights, but not on Tuesday. Nosek finished with a goal and an assist, Bellemare had his first goal of the season, and Carrier chipped in with an assist.

Bellemare also was one of the primary penalty killers and helped the Knights kill off all three Chicago power plays.

“They’ve been real good, they work hard, they compete hard, they play a physical game,” Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. “You know, some nights like (Tuesday) they chip in offensively and that’s a bonus for them. They’re working hard, they scored two real nice goals tonight by going to the net.

“When they work that hard and play that hard, a lot of nights you’re going to win when your so-called fourth line chips in offensively like that. They had an excellent game, all three of them.”

2. Power play clicking.

Remember when the Knights opened the season by converting on just one of their first 21 man-advantage opportunities? The Knights went 2-for-5 against Chicago, with William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault finding the back of the net, and have now scored on the power play in three straight games.

“Like I said, we battled right back and then 20 seconds later we scored a big power-play goal,” Gallant said. “That was a big part of the game for us. You come out of that and the other team scores and puts you down 1-0 early. It was a great play by our PP, and William Karlsson had a great high tip.

“It’s a play that you work on in practice. A lot of the time you don’t get the power-play goal on the plays that you work on. That was one of them that worked really well.”

3. Lesson learned.

The Knights sat back in the third period against St. Louis trying to protect a lead and almost paid for it. Buffalo, Detroit and Arizona also dominated the Knights in the third period during the homestand.

But the Knights kept the pressure on Chicago for most of the final 20 minutes. The Knights finished with a 33-31 advantage in shots on goal and posted an impressive Corsi For percentage of 54.5.

“I thought we played tight hockey,” Gallant said. “I thought our defensemen were good around the blue paint in their zone, actually in both zones. A lot of nights when you’re battling in the blue paint in the offensive zone and the defensive zone and you win those battles, you win the hockey game. And I think we did a real good job out there tonight.”

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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.