Knights’ Mark Stone eyes share of franchise record in game vs. Blues
Vegas captain Mark Stone can tie a franchise record for goals in consecutive games when the Golden Knights face the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Stone has scored a goal in a career-high six consecutive games. The team record is seven games, set by Max Pacioretty during the 2021-22 season.
The 33-year-old Stone, who missed 16 games with a left wrist injury, has 14 goals and 37 points in just 26 contests this season. He collected a goal and two assists in the Golden Knights' 5-3 victory over Columbus on Thursday.
Reilly Smith also scored twice as Vegas posted back-to-back wins for the first time since Dec. 11-13.
The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights snapped a season-high five-game losing streak (0-3-2) with a 4-3 overtime win at Winnipeg on Tuesday. Vegas went just 1-5-3 over a nine-game stretch before the victory over the Jets.
"It's been tough sledding for us, but we have the good personnel that can find its way out of it," Stone said. "Some teams can crumble in these situations, but we still feel like we're playing some decent hockey. We're not really giving up a ton; it's just about getting our offense going again."
The Golden Knights got a big boost from goaltender Akira Schmid, who came on midway through the first period on Thursday for an injured Carter Hart to stop 22 of 24 shots. Hart had to be helped off the ice after landing awkwardly on his left leg during a goal-mouth scrum.
"Tough on Carter," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We don't know the extent of it yet. Didn't look good. Hopefully it's not serious. Good on Schmid for coming in and shutting the door."
St. Louis will play the second game of a back-to-back set that began with a 4-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Friday. Oskar Sundqvist and Pavel Buchnevich each scored for the Blues, who trailed 3-2 entering the third period.
St. Louis finished 0-for-4 on the power play and is 0-for-17 with the man advantage in the last six games.
"I liked our effort," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "I thought we had a lot of really good looks. We need to bear down on those chances more. That's kind of where the game slipped away from us. Special teams again, we ended up on the wrong side of it. Those two things combined right now didn't allow us to have the success that the effort should have provided us tonight."
The Blues survived a scare early in the third period when center Robert Thomas landed face-first on the ice after a collision with Lawson Crouse and had to be helped to the bench. But Thomas, who had an assist, returned a short time later and finished the game.
"Really relieved," Montgomery said. "It looked ugly. Thank God he's fine."