Golden Knights finally break free of a season-long boogeyman to stymie the Kings

No goals for two periods? No problem for the Golden Knights on Thursday, who continued their winning ways from the previous day in defeating the Los Angeles Kings 4-1. In a game notably not featuring the Kings' new star acquisition, Vegas raced out to a 4-0 lead early and never looked back en route to a huge divisional win entering the break. Let's take a look at the notable moments in one of the Golden Knights' finest wins of the year.

Four goals in (just over) five minutes, but it's good this time

The phrase "four goals in five minutes" has some unnerving connotations for Golden Knights fans that've been around a while, but Vegas made their best effort to pave over that against LA. Just before the midway point of the first period, Jack Eichel continued his hot streak with his 21st goal of the season. The first line struck yet again roughly three minutes later, with Mark Stone adding his own 21st.

It was ultimately a three-point period for the Golden Knights' captain, as under two minutes later, he added an assist on Pavel Dorofeyev's team-leading 26th of the season. Finally, only 20 seconds later, Mitch Marner struck for the fourth time in five games, and just like that, it was 4-0 Vegas just over halfway through the period. They wouldn't score again, but that one five-minute span was more than enough.

Pretty, pretty good. After a rough end to January, Vegas needed a game like this that they controlled from the onset. As noted on the TV broadcast, this was the first time in their last eight home games that Vegas scored first, and it was also the fastest four goals in franchise history. For once, one can genuinely call it historic without the usual tinge of irony.

Adin Hill has a desperately-needed bounce-back effort

As we've mentioned extensively here, one-time Finals hero Adin Hill has... not been good lately, to say the least. However, against a strong Kings team, he seemingly returned to form, turning away 32 of 33 shots faced in arguably his best game of the season. In fact, this game marked his 100th career win; for that and his excellent in-game efforts, Hill was honored with the First Star of the Game.

Advanced stats seem to agree with the eye test, as MoneyPuck had Hill at a very solid 1.31 goals saved above expected. Ideally, this gives the somewhat-troubled netminder a bit of confidence heading into a well-deserved few weeks off, and shores up an unstable goalie situation for after the break. Reports are that Carter Hart hasn't even started skating yet, so it's Hill and Akira Schmid's team for the foreseeable future.

In total, this was an uncharacteristically dominant win over a team that's historically given Vegas serious troubles, making it all the sweeter. Most of the boys now have several weeks to rest up, recuperate, and get ready to lock in down the stretch of the season. Others, however, are heading to Italy to represent their countries on the grandest stage of all. Regardless of where they're heading, we wish everyone a happy Olympic break, and we can't wait to start covering the Golden Knights' best efforts at the upcoming Games!