"When I reflect back on the 500th win, what I'm going to like the most was that it was a Pete DeBoer type game," DeBoer said. "We didn't give them a lot, I thought we smothered them. Defensively, we were really solid. We looked dangerous all night. ... That's the nice thing about tonight. I really liked how we played."
Reilly Smith scored twice for the Golden Knights (30-20-4), and Robin Lehner made 16 saves for his 20th win of the season after missing five games with an upper-body injury.
"We do have a lot of success against them (18-1-3), but I think it's just a coincidence," Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault said. "We're ready against them. We had a rivalry against them the first few years and it kind of wore off. I think it's just that we're confident and we know how to play against them. They're in a situation where they're not as offensively gifted as they were the first few years of our existence. We're just cashing in and playing the right way."
Noah Gregor scored for the Sharks (24-24-6), who have lost five of six. Zach Sawchenko made 18 saves in relief of James Reimer, who did not start the second period because of a lower-body injury. Reimer, making his 13th straight start, allowed one goal on 11 shots.
"All our guys looked tired tonight," San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. "No excuses, but we've played a lot of games over a short amount of days. It's been a grind. We weren't heavy and hard enough. ... I don't think it was a lack of effort. I just think there was no juice in the tank."