Golden Knights beat Sharks 4-2 for third straight win – Hockey Writer – Vegas Golden Knights

Mark Stone had a goal and an assist and the Vegas Golden Knights scored twice in the first and third periods to beat the San Jose Sharks 4-2 at SAP Center. The Golden Knights remain in the lead in the Presidents Trophy race with 59 points, while the Sharks are second-to-last in the NHL with 32 points.

game review

In a fast-paced, back-and-forth first quarter, both teams performed well from the start, with Vegas' Ilya Samsonov and San Jose's Alexander Georgiev both making A wonderful save. The Golden Knights got a breakout midway through the first half when Stone passed Cody Sage on a long pass, leading to a breakaway that saw Stone sneak past Georgiev for the win. Gas scored the first goal of the game. They followed up less than two minutes later when a Shakir Mukahamdullin error slid straight to Brett Howden. After a few good passes from the Golden Knights, Zach Whitecloud maneuvered to the right side of the offensive zone and scored. Georgiev was once again in good position to save, but failed to get going.

Both teams had good scoring chances the rest of the way, most notably Barclay Goudreau's breakaway. But Samsonov saved that shot, and he and Georgiev stopped everything else that came their way. In total, Vegas and San Jose took 13 and 12 shots, respectively, during the period.

The pace of the game in the second quarter was slightly slower, but more one-sided, and the trend of the game was very favorable to the Golden Knights. They controlled the game, keeping the puck in the offensive zone most of the time, and outshot the Sharks 18-4. However, a key tripping penalty from former Shark Tomas Hertl gave San Jose a power play, and they used some good puck movement to score a much-needed power-play goal from Willem Eklund.

Will Smith's basket gave the Sharks a scoring chance, but Vegas dominated the remaining 10 minutes of the quarter. Georgiev made every save, some of them extremely difficult, to keep San Jose in the game.

Unfortunately for the Sharks, Fabian Zetterlund hit a tough free throw with three seconds left to give Vegas a power play. They didn't score in those three seconds but took advantage of the man advantage in the third quarter. Jack Eichel's puck handling drew the San Jose penalty killer, who completed a great saucer pass to set up Victor Olofsson's shot.

The Sharks needed to respond to keep the game close again thanks to another power play. Shortly after the shot hit the post, Timothy Liljegren walked down the blue line for another try and hit the metal again, but this time it found the net as well.

Both teams had more chances until the Sharks pulled Georgiev for an extra skater with 2:39 left. Stone had his first open-net chance, but excellent defensive work from MacLean Celebrini converted his shot and prevented a goal. Stone had his revenge seconds later, however, stealing the puck from Celebrini and passing it to Hertl, who sealed the game against his former team.

The Golden Knights next play at home against the New York Islanders on Thursday (Jan. 9), while the Sharks will host Utah Hockey Club on the road on Friday (Jan. 10).