Stephenson's four assists power Golden Knights to win against Wild

LAS VEGAS -- Chandler Stephenson had an NHL career-high four assists for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 6-4 win against the Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday.

Stephenson, who leads the Golden Knights with 26 points (nine goals, 17 assists), did not play Friday in a 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers because of the death of his grandmother.
"I think she was helping me tonight with that one," Stephenson said. "It's tough, and [it has] been a sad couple of days, but I've had a lot of support here. [The] team, staff, players, everybody was there for me. It helps you get through it. It was a special night, for sure."
Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone each had a goal and two assists, and Zach Whitecloud scored twice for the Golden Knights (16-11-0), who have won four of their past five games. Robin Lehner made 23 saves.
"It's always tough to see teammates go through stuff like that," Stone said of Stephenson. "It's emotional for all of us. To get him back, and for him to put on that kind of performance together for us, was inspirational and something we needed as a team. Real character for Chandler to fly back and be with the team. [It] shows his resiliency."

Jared Spurgeon had two assists, and Cam Talbot made 30 saves for the Wild (19-8-1), who have lost consecutive games after winning their previous eight. Minnesota lost 2-1 at the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
"I think today wasn't our best," Wild forward Mats Zuccarello said. "We know this team is a fast team, we gave them too many odd-man rushes, losing pucks in bad areas, giving them those chances."
Whitecloud gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 8:53 of the first period before Nico Sturm tied it 1-1 on a delayed penalty at 13:54.
Evgenii Dadonov scored on the power play to give the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead at 17:15.
Zuccarello tied it 2-2 when he scored a power-play goal with 0.7 seconds left in the period.

Nick Bjugstad then scored nine seconds into the second period to give the Wild a 3-2 lead, but Whitecloud scored his second of the game to tie it 3-3 at 5:46.
It was the second multigoal game of Whitecloud's NHL career.
"Us six guys on the back end want to contribute as much as possible in any offensive way, whether that's scoring goals, or creating chances, or being on the forecheck," Whitecloud said.
Pacioretty gave the Golden Knights a 4-3 lead at 13:52 on a breakaway. He has scored 14 points (eight goals, six assists) during an eight-game point streak since returning from a broken foot on Nov. 24.

Marcus Foligno tied it 4-4 at 1:22 of the third period on a tap-in after Spurgeon's shot bounced off Lehner's glove and landed on the goal line.
Stone gave the Golden Knights a 5-4 lead on the power play at 4:42 to extend his point streak to eight games (four goals, nine assists).
"The penalty kill well, they block a lot of shots, they're dedicated to that game. Unfortunately, they got a power play at the end and it ended up being the game-winner," Foligno said. "Our 5-on-5 game was really good, especially on the back-to-back, and we definitely came close to tying it up."
Alex Pietrangelo scored an empty-net goal at 19:33 for the 6-4 final.
"It was a big win," Stone said. "Obviously, Friday (against Philadelphia) wasn't our best. We had a chance to win that game, but we didn't have that killer instinct. Tonight, I don't think we let anything rattle us."
NOTES: Wild forward Frederick Gaudreau played 11:41 after missing the past six games in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol. … Bjugstad's goal tied Jason Zucker's record for the second-fastest goal to start a period in Wild history. Zucker scored eight seconds into the third period against the Edmonton Oilers on Jan. 16, 2014. … Pacioretty and Stone's eight-game point streaks are the second-longest in Golden Knights history. Alex Tuch holds the record at nine games (11 points; three goals, eight assists) from Dec. 27, 2018-Jan. 12, 2019. … Pacioretty extended his goal streak to six games, the longest in Golden Knights history, and his longest streak since Jan. 2-15, 2015, with the Montreal Canadiens. … Stephenson became the third Golden Knights player to have four assists in a game, joining Stone (Feb. 13, 2020, against the St. Louis Blues and Feb. 23, 2020, against the Anaheim Ducks) and Nate Schmidt (Nov. 17, 2019, against the Calgary Flames). Stone also had five assists March 1, 2021, against the Wild.