Marchessault scores twice, Golden Knights beat Oilers 6-3

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — It took just over two minutes for the Vegas Golden Knights to leave the Edmonton Oilers behind.

Jonathan Marchessault had two goals and an assist and the Golden Knights scored three goals in a 2:12 second span early in the second period in a 6-3 victory Sundat night.

"We need to build off this," Marchessault said. "We had a tough first 20 games and everybody knows that. We need to catch up from our slow start. There is no magic, we just have to play fast. If we play fast, we're giving options to each other quick and we're playing our best and that's what we did tonight."

William Karlsson, Cody Eakin, Max Pacioretty and Reilly Smith also scored, Smith tacked on two assists and Colin Miller had three. The Golden Knights have won two of their last three to improve to 9-11-1.

Connor McDavid, Alex Chiasson and Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton. The Oilers are 9-10-1 after dropping six of seven.

"Obviously it is frustrating, there is no other way to say it," McDavid said. "Especially because we have shown we can be a good team. We had that 8-1-1 stretch where we looked really good and now we have wavered and find ourselves dipping a bit. We just have to get back to that brand of hockey that we know we can play."

Eakin began the second-period burst, tying it at 2 with a short-handed goal at 2:21. Pacioretty struck at 3:53, and Marchessault added a power-play goal at 4:33.

"We came out strong in the second, one thing led to another and we had a few in the back of the net, that's what we needed," Eakin said. "It's been a little inconsistent and hopefully we can build a little momentum here and play the way we need to be successful."

Vegas added to its lead 34 seconds into the third on a redirect by Marchessault, his 10th, and piled on with another goal by Smith three minutes later. Edmonton got one back from Draisaitl shortly after that.

Edmonton scored 52 seconds into the game on its first shot when McDavid tipped Matt Benning's shot that had goalie Marc-Andre Fleury completely going in the opposite direction. McDavid has 12 goals this season.

Notes: It was the first of four meetings between the eams this season. Edmonton won three of four games last season against the reigning Western Conference champions. ... Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt made his season debut after serving a 20-game suspension for violating the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. ... Chiasson has eight goals in 14 games. He signed with Edmonton after coming to the team on a training camp tryout.

UP NEXT:

Golden Knights: At Calgary on Monday night.

Oilers: At San Jose on Tuesday night.