Hertl gets hat trick, Golden Knights top Red Wings

LAS VEGAS – Tomas Hertl scored his second hat trick of the season and Jack Eichel had a four-point game to help the Vegas Golden Knights to a 6-3 victory against the Detroit Red Wings at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Eichel had a goal and three assists, and Mark Stone scored with two assists for the Golden Knights (41-20-8), who have won two straight. Adin Hill made 28 saves.

“We're playing pretty good hockey for the most part,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I like the way it's trending, but there's always a few things, and we'll grind those out for 13 games. We’ll see where it leads us.”

Vegas is first in the Pacific Division with 90 points, three ahead of the Edmonton Oilers.

Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists, and Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat also scored for the Red Wings (32-31-6), who have lost eight of their past 10. Cam Talbot made 30 saves.

“We have to be honest with each other. We were, again tonight, between periods,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “We talk about wanting to be in the playoffs, but we're not sure we always want to be in shooting lanes. We're not sure we want to do some things, and I'm not saying everybody. Do we really want to do it around the net? Do we really want to get hit by a puck? Do we want to do the board work when it's hard? If the answer is yes to that from everybody, then we have a chance. If the answer is yes to those questions from 85 percent of the players, we don't.”

Detroit remains five points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

Raymond scored at 4:47 of the first period to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead on the power play. His shot from the left circle went off Alex Pietrangelo’s stick and through Hill’s five-hole.

Hertl tied the game 1-1 at 11:47 with a power-play goal, scoring at the far post after a pass from Stone.

Hertl scored his second of the game at 16:32 to put Vegas up 2-1 when he tipped in a Brayden McNabb shot from the point.

Nicolas Roy scored off the rush at 19:57, extending the lead to 3-1.

“We had a lot of good chances in the first, and you go down 3-1. It's not the best spot to be,” DeBrincat said. “There was a lot of good. Some bad that we've got to clean up before the next game.”

Kane collected a rebound and roofed a shot on the power play at 1:49 of the second period to cut the lead to 3-2.

Stone pushed it to 4-2 at 7:07, shooting a rebound into an open net following a shot from Pietrangelo.

Hertl completed the hat trick at 8:02 on the power play to make it 5-2.

“If you score a hat trick and you win, it's way better than the last time when we lost,” Hertl said. “It's a good effort. Good team win. All four lines were rolling, and we just have to keep doing it.“

DeBrincat made it 5-3 at 9:36 of the third period with a wrist shot from the right circle over Hill's glove.

Eichel scored an empty-net goal at 18:59 for the 6-3 final and his 600th NHL career point.

“It's a cool milestone,” Eichel said. “I've played with some amazing players. You've got to look around at the people in this room, people I've played with previously. I've been the benefactor of some good hockey players. I'm just trying to continue to get better every day. That stuff usually comes organically.”

NOTES: Stone (1-2—3) recorded his seventh three-point game of the season to tie Jonathan Marchessault (2017-18) and Max Pacioretty (2020-21) for the second-most by a Golden Knights player in a season. Marchessault owns the franchise record with eight in 2023-24. … A Golden Knights player has scored a hat trick in each of their past three home games (also Pavel Dorofeyev on March 20 and Hertl on March 9). Vegas became the third team in the last 35 years (since 1989-90) with a hat trick in three consecutive home games, following Toronto (from Feb. 13-17, 2024) and Calgary (from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5, 1992).