Eichel, Stone lead NHL-leading Golden Knights past Penguins

The Vegas Golden Knights scored three times in the first period and beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night, according to the NHL’s official game summary.

Mark Stone had a goal and two assists, Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner each had two assists, and Adin Hill made 22 saves as Vegas improved to 8-2-0, the summary and league standings show. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh (3-5-1).

The game drew more than 200 searches in Canada on Saturday, according to Google Trends.

Vegas came in leading the NHL at 7-2-0 against a slumping Pittsburgh team that had lost to Colorado a night earlier, CBS Sports and NHL.com reported in their previews. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists as the Avalanche rallied past the Penguins in that game, NHL.com reported.

Rasmus Andersson opened the scoring 1:06 into the game, and Noah Hanifin made it 2-0 at 4:02, with Eichel and Stone assisting on both. Stone scored on a power play at 17:46 of the first period, the NHL summary shows.

Crosby got Pittsburgh on the board with a power-play goal at 5:54 of the second, his third of the season. Trevor Connelly answered at 7:05 and Shea Theodore made it 5-1 at 11:17. Malkin scored his fifth of the season at 4:43 of the third, and Brett Howden was awarded an empty-net goal at 17:47.

Pittsburgh outshot Vegas 24-18. Sergei Murashov made 13 saves on 18 shots for the Penguins.

The Golden Knights have been a problem for Canadian teams early this season. They beat the Calgary Flames 6-2 on Thursday behind a Stone hat trick and rallied from 3-0 down to beat the Maple Leafs in a shootout on Oct. 8. They also topped our NHL power rankings after week 1.

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Sources: NHL official game summary and standings; NHL.com; CBS Sports; Google Trends Canada.