Jan 7, 2025; San Jose, California, USA; Vegas Golden Knights center Tomas Hertl (center) passes against San Jose Sharks center Mikael Granlund (center left) during the first period at SAP Center at San Jose. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images Mark Stone had a goal and an assist as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights continued their dominance of the San Jose Sharks with a 4-2 victory on Tuesday night.
Zach Whitecloud, Victor Olofsson and Tomas Hertl also scored goals and Shea Theodore added two assists for Vegas, which won its third straight game and for the ninth time in 10 games. The Golden Knights, who lead the NHL with 59 points, improved to 27-2-5 all-time against the Sharks in the regular season, including 14-0-3 in San Jose.
Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves to win his sixth consecutive start for Vegas, which also improved to 22-3-2 in games against Western Conference teams and 14-2-1 against Pacific Division foes.
William Eklund had a goal and an assist and Timothy Liljegren also scored for San Jose, which had a two-game win streak snapped, Alexandar Georgiev finished with 38 saves.
Vegas jumped out to a 2-0 lead while scoring twice in the span of 89 seconds midway through the first period.
Stone opened the scoring when he outmuscled Cody Ceci for a Theodore stretch pass at the San Jose blue line and then broke in and fired a wrist shot past Georgiev’s glove side for his 100th goal in 300 games with the Golden Knights.
Whitecloud then made it 2-0 when he slid a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle under Georgiev’s pads.
San Jose, despite being outshot 18-4 in the second period, cut the lead to 2-1 midway through the period on a power-play goal by Eklund, who one-timed a Collin Graf pass from below the hash marks past Samsonov’s glove side.
Vegas extended the lead back to two goals at the 1:10 mark of the third period on a power-play goal by Olofsson, who roofed a Jack Eichel backhand crossing pass from the right face-off dot. It was Eichel’s 42nd assist of the season, matching a career high.
Liljegren made it 3-2 midway through the period with a power-play goal, whipping in a wrist shot from left point off the left post and in.
The Sharks pulled Georgiev for an extra attacker and Hertl sealed the win with 1:20 to go with an empty-netter off a pass from Stone, who had stolen the puck from Macklin Celebrini.
–Field Level Media
