Marchessault back to his old (hat) tricks as Golden Knights defeat Devils

By Justin Emerson

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019 | 8:25 p.m.

NEWARK, N.J. — There is no harsher judge of Jonathan Marchessault than Jonathan Marchessault.

A story to illustrate: Earlier this year the Golden Knights winger was asked if he pays attention to advanced stats like Corsi and expected goals. After first asking where to find such numbers, he wondered aloud how bad he had been.

The purpose of the question was to point out how good his numbers were and that data suggested he was one of the team’s better players. But he was having none of it.

“Well, do they know how many goals (William) Karlsson and I have right now? We have one in seven games combined,” Marchessault said in October. “If guys like me and (Karlsson) don’t produce, what else are we going to do on this team?”

Marchessault clearly had been waiting for a night like Tuesday. He recorded a natural hat trick in the third period, the second three-goal outing as a Golden Knight and third of his career, to help Vegas beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 at Prudential Center.

“At the end of the day, I always have in mind if I don’t produce and we lost, I’m a hard critic toward me. But if we win and I don’t produce, I can live with that,” Marchessault said. “We’re always happy for each other, and it’s always fun to get rewarded once in a while.”

Not only was it his first multigoal game of the year, it was the first time this season he had more than one point. A little luck didn’t hurt. The first goal deflected off his skate to tie the game, then he redirected a point shot for his second. On his third, he picked up his own power-play rebound and whacked it in to complete the trick.

“He wants to score and that’s the type of player he is,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “When he gets that, I guess you could call it a snotty nose, whatever you want to call it, going hard to the net … then (Marchessault’s) really effective and he’s done that the last four games for sure.”

Marchessault is an original Golden Knight and has played more games in a Vegas sweater than anyone but Karlsson. It was a big night for him, but it was just as big for the newest Golden Knight, who has played one game with the team.

Chandler Stephenson was acquired from the Washington Capitals after Monday’s game, and made his team debut against the Devils. As if that wasn’t a big enough milestone for the 25-year-old, he went ahead and scored on his sixth shift as a Golden Knight.

“That’s kind of the cherry on top for how everything has been so far,” Stephenson said. “Happy to get that one out of the way.”

But the biggest impact Stephenson had was on the defensive end at the close of the game. At his best, Stephenson isn’t going to be a goal-scoring machine for Vegas, but a reliable defender who can keep the puck out of the net at crucial points of the game. So Gallant threw him out on the ice to kill the team’s first penalty.

Then with the Golden Knights protecting a lead with a minute left, he was on the ice against six New Jersey attackers, and even came inches from an empty-net goal. That Gallant trusted him already speaks to how important the team considers the acquisition.

“You want to make a player comfortable coming to a new team,” Gallant said. “He scored a huge goal for us tonight, played some PK and it worked out.”

Said Stephenson: “Obviously that’s huge for your personal confidence and just to feel right at home, that’s obviously something that feels really good in your first game.”

Vegas was 1-9-0 before tonight when trailing after the second period, but was able to turn a 2-1 third period deficit into a 4-3 win. The Golden Knights also have equaled the number of wins versus losses, improving to 15-11-4 for the first time since they were 9-6-3.

It was the Golden Knights’ fourth-straight win, but coming back to win was a testament to how they seemed to figure things out from what seemed to be a season-long slump. All the wins in this streak have come in different ways.

The first win was a buzzer-beater to tie it and an overtime winner. The second was a defensive battle and a shootout victory. On Monday they jumped out to an early lead and coasted to the end. Tuesday they were outplayed in the first but held on until breaking through in the third.

“It’s going to be different all season long. You’re going to get couple-goal leads in the first or give up two goals in the first,” defenseman Deryk Engelland said. “You’ve just got to stick with it, play your game and that’s what we did tonight.”