Hertl, Hill help Golden Knights defeat Panthers

LAS VEGAS -- Tomas Hertl scored to extend his point streak to nine games, and Adin Hill made 32 saves for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 4-1 victory against the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday.

Brayden McNabb had a goal and an assist, and Nicolas Roy had three assists for the Golden Knights (31-15-4), who moved back into first place in the Pacific Division, one point ahead of the Edmonton Oilers.

“It feels good, especially playing a team like Florida,” Hill said. “They're going to come in here hungry. We did a great job playing our game tonight. We survived the first few minutes there, then we got a big goal, and we carried the play the rest of the way.”

Anton Lundell scored, and Spencer Knight made 22 saves for the Panthers (29-19-3), who were coming off a 7-2 win at the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

“I’m glad the [road trip] is over,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “When we go .500 (2-2-0), we're not going to brag about that. We've been .500 for a month, but we just played 16 road games, and back-to-backs are a challenge for us. We're going to deal with it for the rest of the year, so we want to keep these games tight. We were able to do that for the most part. I don't think we got outshot tonight, so I don't think we necessarily outplayed it. ... We were a little behind him in some of our decision-making.”

McNabb gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 5:26 of the first period, scoring with a one-timer off a pass from Keegan Kolesar from the left point.

“Florida has a tendency sometimes to be backchecked and overpursue the puck,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “They want to get it out of your hands in a hurry. So, if you can buy yourself a little time, it brings the 'D' in play in the middle of the ice, and [McNabb] happened to be in and found the net.”

Tanner Pearson pushed it to 2-0 at 5:40 of the second period, beating Knight blocker side from a sharp angle in the bottom of the right circle.

Lundell cut it to 2-1 at 1:56 of the third period, redirecting Eetu Luostarinen's point shot past Hill in front.

“They have a good blend of really good defensive structure as well as some guys who can really move the puck on offense,” Knight said. "So, it was a hard battle against them. ... That's the way it goes sometimes.”

Jack Eichel responded to make it 3-1 at 11:31. He took a lead pass from Ivan Barbashev, made a backhand-to-forehand move, and scored past Knight's left pad on a breakaway.

Hertl added an empty-net goal at 19:31 for the 4-1 final. He has 13 points (seven goals, six assists) during his streak.

“Tonight was a better game [than the 4-3 loss at the Dallas Stars on Friday],” Pearson said. “You don't want to look too far ahead. You look at the next game and then focus on the game plan from there, but we can definitely take some stuff that we did tonight.”