Mark Stone scored a hat trick to lead the Vegas Golden Knights (25-14-5) to a 4-1 victory against the Nashville Predators (24-19-1) on Monday evening at T-Mobile Arena.
HOW IT WENT DOWN
The Golden Knights got the scoring started at 4:35 of the first period as Stone ripped it top-shelf on Nashville netminder Jusse Saros off a rebound from the slot. A cross-ice pass from Chandler Stephenson saw Stone streak in and snap the puck past Saros for his second of the night 1:11 into the middle frame. The Predators halved the lead as Luke Evangelista deflected the puck into the Vegas net a little over 16 minutes later. With just 24 seconds left in the second period, Stone completed the hat trick to give the Golden Knights a 3-1 lead. An empty net goal from Jonthan Marchessault in the final minute sealed the 4-1 victory for Vegas.
TOP PERFORMERS
Mark Stone: Stone scored three goals for the first regular season hat trick of his career.
Pavel Dorofeyev: Dorofeyev recorded two assists in Monday's matchup.
Chandler Stephenson: Stephenson tallied two assists in the Vegas victory.
Logan Thompson: Thompson saved 34 of 35 shots on net against the Predators.
VGK STATS OF THE KNIGHT
Mark Stone scored his first career regular season hat trick to go with his two previous postseason hat tricks with the Golden Knights. The last time he recorded a three-goal game was in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Stone also scored his 18th career game-opening goal for Vegas in the first period, tying Rielly Smith for the third-most in franchise history.
Pavel Dorofeyev posted his fifth career multi-point game (2A).
BECAUSE VGK WON...
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LOOKING AHEAD
The Golden Knights take on the New York Rangers for the first time this season on Thursday at 7 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena. Tune in on Vegas 34, stream on KnightTime+, or listen live on the Vegas Golden Knights Radio Network on 98.9/1340.
