William Karlsson scored two goals and Reilly Smith had three assists as the Vegas Golden Knights cruised to a 6-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Jonathan Marchessault had a goal and an assist and Tomas Hyka, Tomas Nosek and David Perron also scored goals for Vegas, which moved one point ahead of Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay for most points in the NHL. Karlsson moved into a tie with Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin for second in the league in goals with 33, three behind leader Alex Ovechkin.

Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 30 saves for the Golden Knights, who improved to 24-5-2 at home this season. It was the 31st time this season that the Golden Knights scored at least four goals in a game, tying Tampa Bay for No. 1 in the league.

Anders Nilsson stopped 20 of 25 shots before giving way to Jacob Markstrom at the start of the third period for the Canucks. Markstorm finished with eight saves as Vancouver suffered its second straight loss and eighth in 10 games. Daniel Sedin had a goal and an assist and Sven Baertschi and Thomas Vanek each scored goals for the Canucks.

Hyka scored his first career NHL goal to give Vegas a 1-0 lead after 2:29, tapping in his own rebound on a shot that trickled through Nilsson's pads. But Vancouver rallied to take a 2-1 lead on Baertschi's 14th goal of the season off a brilliant crossing pass from Sam Gagner and Vanek's rebound of a Sedin backhand shot that bounced off the post and into the slot.

Karlsson answered with his 32nd goal of the season to even it 2-2 after the first period, then gave Vegas a 3-2 lead with his 33rd with a wrist shot under Nilsson's left arm at the 5:36 mark. Marchessault followed with his 22nd just 63 seconds later with a power-play goal, the sixth power-play goal allowed in two games by the Canucks.

Nosek made it 5-2 with his fourth goal in six games, but Sedin answered with a power-play goal at the 4:28 mark of the third period. Perron, the last Vegas player to touch the puck, was credited with his 15th goal of the season after Markstrom was pulled and a pass back to the right point got past Canucks defenseman Troy Stecher and slid into the empty net.

--Field Level Media