Reilly Smith scored two goals and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots for his league-leading ninth victory as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights snapped a two-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
It was the 15th career two-goal game for Smith, who has now scored against every team in the National Hockey League. William Karlsson added two assists to extend his points streak to five games and also reach 200 career points.
Boone Jenner scored for Columbus, which had its winless streak extended to five games (0-4-1). Joonas Korpisalo finished with 23 saves as the Blue Jackets fell to 0-7-3 when not scoring the game's first goal.
Smith gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at the 19:15 mark of the first period when his centering pass from behind the right side of the goal caromed in off traffic in front of the crease and past Korpisalo.
Columbus tied it early in the second period when Jenner ripped a shot from inside the left circle past Fleury's glove for his fourth goal of the season.
The Golden Knights regained the lead two minutes later with a short-handed goal as Smith converted a 2-on-1 breakout by converting Karlsson's crossing pass with a wrist shot over Korpisalo's blocker side for his team-leading ninth goal. It was Vegas' fifth short-handed goal, tops in the NHL.
Columbus, which finished 0-for-4 on the power play, nearly tied it midway through the third period when Seth Jones' wrist shot squirted past Fleury and into the blue ice before defenseman Jon Merrill swept it away.
The Blue Jackets pulled Korpisalo for an extra attacker with 1:35 remaining but managed just a wrist shot by Oliver Bjorkstrand that Fleury easily saved.
--Field Level Media
Vegas | Columbus | |
Reilly Smith 2 | Points | Boone Jenner 1 |
Reilly Smith 2 | Goals | Boone Jenner 1 |
William Karlsson 2 | Assists | Nick Foligno 1 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
Reilly Smith 1 | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Marc-Andre Fleury .967 | Save Percentage | Joonas Korpisalo .920 |
Marc-Andre Fleury 29 | Saves | Joonas Korpisalo 23 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Vegas | 25 | 2 | 0-3 | 4-4 | 8 | 23 |
Columbus | 30 | 1 | 0-4 | 3-3 | 6 | 31 |