Stone gets hat trick, Golden Knights defeat Predators

LAS VEGAS -- Mark Stone scored his first career regular-season hat trick for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 4-1 victory against the Nashville Predators at T-Mobile Arena on Monday.

Stone had previously scored two hat tricks in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“I was just fortunate enough to be in shooting spots tonight. I'd be a fool to pass up the ones that I [got],” Stone said. “Those just come some days and other days they don't, but we just need to keep finding ways to play those 60-minute games as a good team.”

Pavel Dorofeyev and Chandler Stephenson each had two assists, and Logan Thompson made 34 saves for Vegas (25-14-5).

“[Stone’s] pretty good with [Stephenson]. They were on. We saw their chemistry,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “[Dorofeyev] has been a good fit there, too. So, the whole line looks good together, but we need a game like that every once in a while, especially lately where maybe an individual goes above and beyond.”

Luke Evangelista scored, and Juuse Saros made 25 saves for Nashville (24-19-1), which had won two in a row and had its seven-game road point streak end (6-0-1).

“We played a pretty good game,” Predators captain Roman Josi said. “I felt like especially in the first, 5-on-5, we played really well. Even the second, I liked our second. They made a bit of a push, obviously, because they're a great team, so that was expected, but we kind of ran out of gas a little bit out there.”

Stone put Vegas ahead 1-0 at 15:25 of the first period, getting to the rebound of Dorofeyev's shot and roofing a wrist shot from the low slot.

He then made it 2-0 at 1:11 of the second period when he beat Saros five-hole from all alone in front.

Evangelista cut the lead to 2-1 at 17:22, redirecting Alexandre Carrier's slap slot from the left point.

“He's got some good consistencies,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said of Evangelista. “He's been playing better and better each night. So, I was happy to see it go in for him. He’s had a little stretch where he was getting chances that weren’t going in for him. It's a big goal for us. He made some big plays.”

Stone completed the hat trick to make it 3-1 at 19:36 of the second. He took a drop pass from Stephenson as the trailer on a rush and beat Saros blocker side from the right circle.

“By the end, Saros had to be thinking glove, five-hole, blocker, three different spots,” Cassidy said. “[Stone] wasn’t predictable. He was taking what was there.”

Jonathan Marchessault scored an empty-net goal at 19:41 of the third for the 4-1 final.

“It's just that time of year where the better teams will start separating. So, obviously, we want to be one of those,” Cassidy said. “We have to be a better version of ourselves for longer if we expect to get points. We’ve even talked about that. We might even be doing that and still not get points because teams will just be playing better. We've witnessed some of that lately.”

NOTES: Golden Knights forward Brendan Brisson was minus-1 in 11:08 of ice time in his NHL debut. … Marchessault played in his 600th NHL game.