WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Jack Eichel broke a tie on a power play with 4:36 left and the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 on Thursday night for their fifth straight victory to open the season.
The Golden Knights are the first reigning champion to open a season with five straight wins since the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers.
“Good teams find a way to win and we found a way to win,” Eichel said. “Obviously, we’ll take the two points tonight.”
After Eichel gave Vegas a 4-3 lead, Nicolas Roy capped the scoring with an empty-netter with 1:03 remaining.
Jonathan Marchessault, Brett Howden and Alec Martinez also scored for the Golden Knights. Logan Thompson stopped 36 shots.
“We know we’re not going to play our best every night, but a ton of credit goes to our goalie,” Eichel said. “And we found a way to score some goals down the stretch.”
Alex Iafallo scored twice for Winnipeg and Cole Perfetti added a goal. Laurent Brossoit made 22 saves.
“It’s frustrating to lose, obviously,” Iafallo said. “You want to win every game but we are just going to stay positive. I feel like we are doing a lot of good things. We need to clean up some mistakes but, at the same time, we are just going to keep close moving, climbing that mountain.”
The games was a rematch of Vegas’ 4-1 series victory last season in the first round of the playoffs.
UP NEXT
Golden Knights: At Chicago on Saturday night.
Jets: At Edmonton on Saturday night.