Dorofeyev gets hat trick, Golden Knights cruise past Bruins

LAS VEGAS -- Pavel Dorofeyev scored a hat trick to help the Vegas Golden Knights defeat the Boston Bruins 5-1 at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

“He puts the work in,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He put a lot of work in this summer. He's progressively gotten better through our organization. That's usually a tell of a guy that's working. It's not just luck one year. … He's found the right line, a good spot in the power play. All that aside, he's earned it. He's done a lot of the right things. All the right things, really.”

Ivan Barbashev and Brett Howden also scored, and Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin and Brandon Saad each had two assists for the Golden Knights (40-20-8), who had lost four of five (1-2-2). Adin Hill made 18 saves, and forward William Karlsson had an assist in his return after missing the past 20 games with a lower-body injury.

“It was a tough road trip for us and traveling back home,” Saad said. “It was nice to have a few days to kind of regroup and recharge. We did a good job of making a statement tonight.”

Morgan Geekie scored, and Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves for the Bruins (30-31-9), who have lost four in a row (0-3-1).

“They came in waves. They played well. That's a testament to their team. It's our job to combat whatever they bring to us, and I thought we did a good job of that,” Swayman said. “We just didn't get the results.

“We can't let things snowball and worry about the past because we can't control it, and that's a message that we hope to get across to everyone here. We just got to keep moving forward. We just need to keep moving forward because that's all we can control and just keep pushing for that playoff spot.”

Dorofeyev gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 9:19 of the second period with a power-play goal, beating Swayman with a snap shot from the left circle off a touch pass from Eichel.

He then made it 2-0 at 19:10 with a snap shot from the slot off a face-off win.

Howden pushed it to 3-0 by roofing a Karlsson pass on the rush at 5:47 of the third period.

Dorofeyev completed the hat trick to make it 4-0 at 10:21, finding a loose puck in front and tucking it away with a backhand.

“He's just a natural goal-scorer,” Hanifin said. “If he gets an opportunity and a Grade-A chance, he's going to score and capitalize, and getting players like that is pretty rare. So, we're happy to have him here.”

Barbashev made it 5-0 at 14:24. Eichel raced ahead of the pack and found Barbashev with a backhanded drop pass from the goal line for a one-timer in the slot.

“I'm happy that we didn't take our foot off the gas and went for that third and eventually the fourth and so on,” Karlsson said. “We need to keep that mentality going forward as well.”

Geekie took a cross-slot pass from David Pastrnak in the left corner and scored with a snap shot below the right circle for the 5-1 final at 17:49.

“You're always frustrated when you lose. It doesn't matter what game it is,” Bruins coach Joe Sacco said. “We knew coming in here tonight it was going to be a challenge against a real good hockey team. We came right in to play. Frustration can't set in. That's a bad thing. We need to just keep digging in, working hard and making sure that we're playing to the end.”

NOTES: Dorofeyev became the fifth player to record a 30-goal season with the Golden Knights, joining Jonathan Marchessault (two), Karlsson (two), Eichel and Max Pacioretty. … Pastrnak recorded his third consecutive season with 50 or more assists, joining Marc Savard (three from 2006-09) and Brad Marchand (three from 2017-20) as the only Bruins players in the past 30 years to do so.