Boston left wing Jake DeBrusk celebrates after scoring against the Vegas Golden Knights during the third period of Sunday’s game in Las Vegas. John Locher/Associated Press

Jake DeBrusk had his chances to stick it to his former coach, Bruce Cassidy, when the Vegas Golden Knights handed the Bruins a shootout loss at the Garden a week ago.

The Bruins winger would not let his second opportunity slip through his fingers.

DeBrusk, who famously butted heads with Cassidy to the point that he requested a trade, scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and it held up as the game-winner in Boston’s 3-1 victory over the Knights in Vegas. And, oh, DeBrusk doled out a half-dozen hits for good measure.

The Bruins, who lost 4-3 in a shootout to Vegas on Dec. 5, took their first lead of the two-game season series at 2:10 of the third period on a beautiful play. Taylor Hall nudged the puck into the offensive zone for Pavel Zacha. The centerman took it deep before making a sweet saucer pass to DeBrusk, who lifted it over goalie Logan Thompson, setting off one of DeBrusk’s patented arm-pumping celebrations.

“(It meant) a lot, It was pure emotion and it felt really good. It was awesome,” DeBrusk said. “Obviously it a special play by (Zacha) and a special play by Hallsy to get it in the zone. It was a whole line effort and I was just the beneficiary.”

DeBrusk felt like this game was similar to the last one in that the Bruins got stronger as the game wore on.

“I think if we had 10 more minutes against them last time we would have scored two more goals or even one more minute of overtime,” said DeBrusk. “Obviously, it’s a good team over there. They’ve been a good team since they came in the league and they added some pieces that weren’t playing tonight. But they know how to play and they know how to play the right way. And they’re an offensive team so we knew we just had to stick to our game plan and find ways to make the most of opportunities. And it felt great to do it.”

The Bruins were playing without David Krejci, who was termed day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS: Vegas’ leading scorer, Jack Eichel,was placed on injured reserve because of a lower-body injury, the club confirmed.

The designation means Eichel must miss at least seven days dating back to when he couldn’t physically play.

Defenseman Zach Whitecould went out Sunday with a lower-body injury, and on Monday was placed on long-term IR, the team confirmed. That designation means Whitecloud will miss at least 10 games and 24 days.

The Knights announced on Twitter they recalled Jonas Rondbjerg, Brayden Pachal and Kaedan Korczak from their American Hockey League affiliate in Henderson, Nevada.

Eichel has missed three of the past four games. He played in Friday’s 2-1 overtime victory over the Philadelphia Flyers but was out of the lineup in Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins.

Eichel leads the Knights with 13 goals and 29 points, and his 16 assists are third.

His injury is the latest blow to the Knights, who lead the Pacific Division with 41 points.

Defensemen Shea Theodore (lower body) and Alex Pietrangelo (family illness) also have been out.

Vegas acquired Eichel in November 2021 in a high-profile trade with the Buffalo Sabres. He was drafted second overall by the Sabres in 2015 but got into a dispute with the team over what kind of surgery he should undergo for a herniated disk, which ultimately led to his departure.

Vegas agreed to let Eichel have artificial disk replacement, which no NHL player had undergone to that point. After recovering from the procedure, Eichel made his debut in February for the Knights.

KRAKEN: The Seattle Kraken claimed 23-year-old Eeli Tolvanen off waivers from the Nashville Predators. The move gives the former first-round draft pick a chance to reclaim some of the hype in Seattle and the Kraken a new option, likely in their bottom six forwards.

The 5-foot-10, 191-pound Tolvanen was selected 30th overall by the Predators in the 2017 NHL draft, after their run to the Stanley Cup Final.

MONDAY’S GAMES

PENGUINS 2, STARS 1: Evgeni Malkin pounced on a loose puck and fired it into the net with 35 seconds remaining to lift Pittsburgh by visiting Dallas.

Malkin’s ninth goal of the year came after Bryan Rust’s shot attempt from in close was poke-checked away. While Rust’s momentum carried him into Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger, Malkin flipped the puck into the open net to push Pittsburgh’s winning streak to six.

Pierre-Olivier Joseph scored his first goal of the season for Pittsburgh. Tristan Jarry stopped 26 shots to improve to 9-0-2 in his last 11 starts.

Roope Hintz scored his 12th goal of the season for Dallas.

RANGERS 4, DEVILS 3: Filip Chytil scored 2:15 into overtime and New York rallied to beat New Jersey, snapping the Devils’ 11-game road win streak.

Vincent Trochek had a goal and an assist, Kaapo Kakko and Chris Kreider also scored, and K’Andre Miller had two assists for the Rangers, who came back from two two-goal deficits to get their fourth straight win. Igor Shesterkin stopped 26 shots.

Nico Hischier, Dawson Mercer and Jack Hughes scored for the Devils, who had not lost on the road since dropping the season opener at Philadelphia. Vitek Vanecek had 19 saves.

CANADIENS 2, FLAMES 1: Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach scored in the shootout to lift Montreal to a win at home.

WILD 2, OILERS 1: Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist, Freddy Gaudreau also scored, and Minnesota beat visiting Edmonton.

BLUES 1, PREDATORS 0: Brayden Schenn scored at 2:23 of overtime to lead St. Louis to a win at home.

SENATORS 3, DUCKS 0: Cam Talbot had 32 saves for his first shutout with the Ottawa in a costly win for the host Senators.

Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle went awkwardly into the boards after being hit by Brett Leason midway through the first period and did not return, and Tyler Motte missed the final two periods after going down hard late in the first period and suffering an upper-body injury.