LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Vegas Golden Knights‘

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home arena has a reputation among some NHL players as being one of the toughest to play in and loudest in the league.The Minnesota Wild don’t mind it a bit.Charlie Coyle scored his second game-winning goal of the season with 5:31 remaining Monday to lift the Wild past the Golden Knights 4-2.Minnesota , which is 4-0-1 against the Golden Knights since they entered the league, is 2-0-0 in Vegas.“It’s a huge win obviously. You get into the later part of the season, so make sure you get every point you can, especially those (close) games,” Coyle said. “It’s a pretty good show here, it’s cool to watch, it’s cool to be part of — we love playing here.”With the puck loose in front of the net, Jared Spurgeon sent a perfect pass to Coyle, who beat Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with a high shot that put the Wild in front.Marcos Foligno, Eric Staal and Mikko Koivu also scored for the Wild. Devan Dubnyk, who has stopped 64 of 67 shots in his last three games, made 30 saves to improve to 3-0-1 against Vegas.Dubnyk said he was pleased to see faithful Wild fans among the announced crowd of 18,328, and that hearing chants of “Doob! Doob!” after several big saves ignited his play down the stretch.“This is only our second time here, the atmosphere in the building is incredible,” Dubnyk said. “It’s cool, we get a pretty good following in certain buildings, Colorado will be another one, there’s lots of people from Minnesota that travel there. It makes playing on the road a little more exciting because you got fans cheering. It definitely makes it a lot more entertaining.”Alex Tuch and Max Pacioretty scored for the Golden Knights, while Fleury made 18 saves.Vegas , which remained in third place in the Pacific Division behind first-place Calgary and San Jose, came into the game after an emotional 7-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. But coach Gerard Gallant rebuked the notion his team came in flat after its up-tempo game with the Penguins.“They scored three goals from the blue paint basically and Flower played an outstanding game when he had to make saves, but he’s not gonna stop them when guys are leaving them wide open in the back door,” Gallant said. “I don’t think we played good today, I don’t think we showed up ready to play a team that was aggressive for points. I don’t think we played hard enough.”Especially when the Knights had an opportunity to seize control of the game with a 5-on-3 power play, after Ryan Suter was called for slashing 15 seconds into the third period, and Marcus Foligno was sent off for delay of game 49 seconds later.Minnesota came into the game boasting the league’s second-best penalty kill, and limited Vegas to just two shots on goal during its power play, while blocking five other shots. The Wild has been successful on 23 of their last 26 penalty kill situations.“I thought once we killed the 5-on-3 it really energized the bench and they thought they were going to do anything not to lose at that point,” Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Anytime you can kill a 5-on-3, that team usually wins.”Vegas did get one power-play goal, though, after Jonathan Marchessault drove into the offensive zone and delayed just enough to draw Dubnyk to his left before feeding Tuch, who gave Vegas a 1-0 lead. The Wild answered with two second-period goals in a span of 1:13 with scores by Foligno and Staal. Vegas tied the game when Paul Stastny found USA Hockey linemate Pacioretty, whose shot beat Dubnyk between the pads. Koivu’s empty-net goal with 13 seconds left was the 200th goal of his career.The victory moved the Wild past Dallas, Colorado and Vancouver in the Western Conference wild-card race, and into third place in the Central Division. Minnesota takes on Colorado on Wednesday, the final game before the All-Star break for both teams.“Believe me, it’s not gonna stay this way,” Boudreau said. “There’s gonna be a lot of interchanges before this season is out. But every time you can pick up two points , you’re closer to being where you want to be.”NOTES: Vegas and Minnesota announced a trade after the game. The Golden Knights acquired a 2019 fifth-round draft pick for D Brad Hunt and a 2019 sixth-round pick. … Vegas D Colin Miller had two assists, and has four in his first two games back after missing 13 games. … Marchessault is two assists shy of 100 in his career. … Wild C Matt Hendricks was a healthy scratch, and remains one game shy of playing in the 600th of his career. … Minnesota W Jason Zucker grew up in Las Vegas before moving to Los Angeles for hockey for two years when he was 11. … The Golden Knights are 15-6-3 since the start of December, and 6-3-0 in 2019.UP NEXTMinnesota: At Colorado on Wednesday.Golden Knights: Host Nashville on Wednesday. BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) Alex Ovechkin can stop fretting about what the Washington Capitals captain described as the worst game of his career.He and the Capitals were much better in a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday, two days after a 7-1 meltdown at Chicago.After being held without a shot against Chicago, Ovechkin responded by scoring his NHL-leading 35th goal, and Washington reclaimed the top spot in the Metropolitan DivisionArticle continues below ...”Yeah, I think the last game I didn’t play my game. I think it was the worst play of my career by myself. I take the blame on it,” Ovechkin said. ”I think we understand the game in Chicago was just forget about it, you know. We moved forward. We got two points.”Capitals coach Barry Trotz noticed how much more involved Ovechkin was against Buffalo, particularly after a few early exchanges with Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.”Sometimes to wake up the bear up, you poke him a little, and he goes,” Trotz said of Ovechkin, who reached the 35-goal plateau for the 10th time in 13 NHL seasons.John Carlson had a goal and assist and Philipp Grubauer stopped 32 shots in a game Washington led 2-0 after two periods.Evgeny Kuznetsov sealed the victory by scoring into an open net with 26 seconds remaining to put Washington up 3-1, and the Capitals ended a four-game road trip at 2-1-1.Washington improved to 34-18-7 for 75 points, moving one ahead of the idle Pittsburgh Penguins, while preparing for a showdown at home Tuesday against Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning.Kyle Okposo spoiled Grubauer’s shutout bid by having Scott Wilson’s shot from the high slot deflect in off him with 7:18 remaining.Evander Kane closed the scoring with 4 seconds left in a final period in which Buffalo managed 17 of its 34 shots. Backup goalie Chad Johnson stopped 27 shots, starting in place of Robin Lehner , who was given a day off to rest a nagging lower-body injury.Though disappointed in the outcome, Sabres coach Phil Housley was more pleased with his team’s overall performance following a sloppy 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.”The result, definitely we don’t like. We want to win at home here,” Housley said. ”But against a really good hockey team, I can’t fault our guys for the effort.”The Capitals struck twice in the second period on goals determined by video reviews.Ovechkin scored 1:18 into the period by getting his stick up to bat down Christian Djoos‘ rising shot from the left point and bounce it inside the left post. The goal held up, with the NHL ruling Ovechkin’s stick was not above the crossbar.Carlson scored with 6:27 left in the second period during a scramble for the puck to the left of the Buffalo net. Carlson jammed the puck loose and into the crease, where it briefly rolled across the goal line an instant before Okposo kicked it out.Play continued until the next whistle with 6:13 left, when a review determined the puck went in.Johnson wasn’t sure how high Ovechkin’s stick was on the first goal, though he knew the second goal was in.”It’s just two lucky goals and that’s the game,” Johnson said. ”Obviously, we made a good push in the third. It just wasn’t enough.”Carlson said the Capitals can take some positives out of a trip in which they opened with a 4-3 overtime loss at Winnipeg and then beat Minnesota 5-2.”The stinker, everyone talks about it,” Carlson said, referring the loss at Chicago. ”But we played a lot of good minutes of hockey on this trip.”NOTES: A few hours before the opening faceoff, the Capitals acquired D Michal Kempny in a trade with Chicago for a conditional 2018 third-round pick. … Trotz laughed in describing the phone conversation he had in welcoming Kempny to the team. ”I told him, we’re not as bad as he saw in Chicago,” Trotz said. … Buffalo recalled G Linus Ullmark from AHL Rochester to back up Johnson. Ullmark was returned to the minors immediately after the game.UP NEXTCapitals: At home against Tampa Bay.Sabres: Play their next two on the road, starting at the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.—