Vegas Golden Knights: Three stars from routing of the Sharks
Another day and another win over the San Jose Sharks for the Vegas Golden Knights who are off to a superb start in 2019-20.
A three-point night from Tomas Nosek helped propel the Vegas Golden Knights to a stunning 5-1 victory against the Sharks in San Jose’s home opener on Friday night, the second time in a matter of days that the Knights had got the better of their bitter rivals.
The Golden Knights are now 2-0-0 to start the year and they beat up on the Sharks in both games, outscoring them 9-2 while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped a combined total of 55 shots across the two games.
Vegas had their bottom six and penalty kill units to thank on Friday after both provided big contributions in the win against the Sharks, and it was an impressive showing up and down the lineup.
Jonathan Marchessault, Brayden McNabb and William Carrier scored their first goals of the year, while Tomas Nosek recorded the first three-point night of his career.
There were notable contributions from a plethora of players and we have picked our own Three Stars from the game but, first, here were the Official Three Stars:
- Tomas Nosek
- Mark Stone
- Marc-Andre Fleury
Let’s now delve into our own Three Stars from the game, starting with an obvious choice for obvious reasons…
Third Star: Mark Stone
It was a two-point night for Mark Stone who recorded two assists against the San Jose Sharks, and he now has four points (one goal, three assists) in the opening two games of the 2019-20 NHL regular season.
Stone got a secondary helper on Tomas Nosek’s first goal after his pass was latched onto by Brandon Pirri, who came racing out of the penalty box before firing a shot at Martin Jones with Nosek in the right place at the right time to convert the rebound.
And Stone also assisted on Nosek’s second tuck of the night in what was a highlight-reel play, showcasing all of Stone’s qualities in one neat package.
score goal, receive hug pic.twitter.com/aptuzvtgV7
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) October 5, 2019
On the penalty kill, Stone charged into the offensive zone and with a 2-on-1 developing, the wing tricked San Jose defenseman Erik Karlsson to slide early and that allowed Stone to feed Nosek with a delicious dish and the bottom six forward one-timed the feed beyond Aaron Dell.
Stone finished Friday’s game with a plus/minus rating of +2 in 17:53 minutes of total ice time, including 2:15 on the power play and 5:09 on the penalty kill. He also had four shots on goal, one hit, one blocked shot and two takeaways.
It was a dominant display from the 2018-19 Selke Trophy finalist and Stone is showing early this year just how crucial he will be for the Golden Knights.
Second Star: Marc-Andre Fleury
Playing in his 800th NHL career game and making his second consecutive start between the pipes, the stage was set for Marc-Andre Fleury to go out against the Sharks and do Marc-Andre Fleury things.
And that’s exactly what the goalie did.
After stopping 21 shots against the Sharks on Wednesday in the season opener, Fleury was unstoppable again last night after keeping out 34 of the 35 shots flung in his direction, including blanking San Jose on five power play attempts.
He was eventually breached by Barclay Goodrow‘s rebound effort late in the third period which prevented a shutout, but that was only a minor blot on the veteran’s copybook.
Other than that, it was another vintage showing from Fleury who stood on his head for Vegas at times and he finished the night with a .971 Save Percentage.
It was also win No. 441 for Fleury who will waltz into the Hall of Fame once his career is over but, on current evidence, that will be a while given that it is pretty evident the 34-year-old still has plenty of good hockey left in him.
There is one other reason Fleury is our Second Star, too. Late in the third period when it looked as though Fight Club 2 was being filmed with a slew of players being launched out of the game, Fleury was the calm among the storm and casually picked up a stick belonging to a Sharks’ player and handed it to a fan.
Legend.
First Star: Tomas Nosek
This is obvious, isn’t it?
The fourth line grinder decided to break out offensively against the Sharks on Friday and he led the charge against Vegas’ bitter rivals.
In total, Nosek finished the night with two goals and one assist to record the first three-point night of his career.
Outstanding stuff.
Nosek began his stellar night with a sublime spin-o-rama move to feed William Carrier who went five-hole on Sharks goalie Martin Jones to open the scoring, and he got on the board himself in the second period after being in the right place at the right time to finish on the rebound.
But his second goal of the night was more impressive given that it was a shorthanded effort, which came after Mark Stone got the better of Erik Karlsson before slipping the puck to Nosek who one-timed it beyond Aaron Dell.
if ya don't know, now ya Nosek 🚨 pic.twitter.com/KlUiuzCrMZ
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) October 5, 2019
It was just a stunning night at the office for Nosek who isn’t normally known for his offensive prowess, but it is encouraging for the Golden Knights to get such production from their fourth line center given that they are in dire need of secondary scoring this year.
Next. Golden Knights torment the Sharks once again. dark
And that wasn’t the only string to Nosek’s bow, either. He also logged over six minutes of ice time on the penalty kill, while he recorded a plus/minus rating of +3 in 17:13 minutes of total ice time.
It was a special night for Nosek and the Vegas Golden Knights are going to need clutch performances from players lower down the lineup if they are going to be successful in their pursuit of the Stanley Cup this year.