Golden Knights surge past Kraken for 3rd straight victory

LAS VEGAS -- The Vegas Golden Knights scored three times in the first period in a 6-2 victory against the Seattle Kraken at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Mark Stone had a goal and two assists, Jack Eichel had two assists, and Brett Howden and Keegan Kolesar each had a goal and an assist for Vegas (22-8-3), which has won three straight and seven of its past eight games. Ilya Samsonov made 21 saves.

“We always talk about trying to use our depth. I think we're at our best as a group when we're able to roll through lines,” Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague said. “When we're making those little plays and everyone's pulling in the same direction, I think that makes us a pretty good team.

“We're doing a good job right now. There's obviously still stuff we can clean up, but it's nice to be coming on the right side of these games.”

Vince Dunn and Jaden Schwartz scored, and Philipp Grubauer made 28 saves for Seattle (15-18-2), which has lost four in a row.

“We made some mistakes with the puck and execution. Then [some things] with our structure that ended up in the back of our net,” Schwartz said. “It gave them some chances. When we’re on top of our game, it doesn’t really matter what other teams are doing. We’re aggressive and confident. Right now, things aren’t coming easy. We just need to get through this and get back to it.”

Dunn gave Seattle a 1-0 lead at 2:34 of the first period. He scored from the right point on the power play.

Kolesar tied the game 1-1 at 12:39 when Victor Olofsson found him on with a seam pass on the rush. The forward has eight goals in 33 games, tying his NHL career high achieved in each of the previous two seasons.

“I still bring the same game that I have right from the start, just the mentality of shooting more and getting more pucks in the net and just getting credit with more goals,” Kolesar said.

Howden gave the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead at 13:50, one-timing a pass from below the goal line from Eichel.

Hague pushed it to 3-1 at 17:48, scoring on a wrist shot above the left circle.

“The chances were fairly even in the first period, even though we're up 3-1. I thought our [goalie] was a little better than their guy in the first period,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “So let's not get ahead of ourselves as a team and think we're outplaying this team or not. We've just gotten a couple extra saves, and then they got a lot of saves in the second period, so I thought both goaltenders were pretty good, and then the third period kind of is what it is.”

William Karlsson made it 4-1 at 8:09 of the third period, tapping in a Kolesar pass between his legs.

“It was great. I just stood there [with my mouth open],” Kolesar said. “Luckily, I was able to, you know, get enough wood on it to get it to ‘Karl.’”

Noah Hanifin extended the lead to 5-1 at 11:28, one-timing a pass from Stone at the inside edge of the left circle.

Schwartz scored on the power play at 13:58, putting in a rebound to make it 5-2.

Stone scored into an empty net at 18:49 for the 6-2 final.

“Critical mistakes, both on the first and second goal, give them great opportunities,” Seattle coach Dan Bylsma said. “I don’t think necessarily after the first goal, but after the second goal, we took some time to get back on focus and back on task. They took it to us for that amount of time.”

NOTES: Eichel became the fastest Golden Knights player to reach 35 assists in a season, doing it in 33 games. Stone did it in 43 games in 2020-21. … The Golden Knights earned their 12th come-from-behind win this season, which is the most in the NHL.