Mark Stone had a two-point night, including the first goal 19 seconds. That led to a 4-2 Golden Knights win over the St. Louis Blues. Victor Olofsson, Pavel Dorofeyev, and Tomas Hertl also scored for Vegas who snapped their four-game losing streak. Ilya Samsonov had 15 saves for his first win in the past four starts (counting tonight).
Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas scored for the Blues who split the home-and-away series with the Golden Knights. Joel Hofer had 27 saves in the losing effort.
Vegas made their presence felt immediately in the first period in a way that had been hard to spot over the last few weeks. Mark Stone jumped onto a miscue in the St. Louis end by Cam Fowler and smoked it past Joel Hofer for his 13th goal of the year to give the Golden Knights the 1-0 lead.
They rode the goal throughout that period with energy, speed, and rhythm to their game which was barely visible for much of Monday’s game. It forced the Blues to chase and keep up. Just seconds after the game’s first power play wrapped up, Victor Olofsson made it 2-0 with a superb postage stamp goal to the top corner of the net.
The St. Louis Blues get some life
All looked like flowers and sunshine for the Golden Knights…for about 88 seconds after said goal. Then came a turnover by Tanner Pearson in center ice, which Jordan Kyrou found and turned into his 21st of the season to make it 2-1. However, unlike the recent past for Vegas, it didn’t diminish the dominance of the first, outshooting the Blues 14-4.
That dominance carried comfortably into the second period, with the Golden Knights registering the first three shots in the period. On the fourth shot at 13:30, the hottest scorer on the team Pavel Dorofeyev finished the tic-tac-toe from Stone and Jack Eichel for his 21st goal to make it 3-1.
There was some wobble later on as Vegas had to kill off a couple of penalties within 3:52 of each other. But they didn’t break, leaving the second period with a lead for the first time since the 4-2 win back on January 7 against San Jose.
The Golden Knights started the third with a great scoring chance from Tanner Pearson, stopped by the big toe of Joel Hofer who was the best player on the ice for the Blues all game long. As for Samsonov, he had a little more action in net compared to the first two periods. Which he handled far better, especially compared to his last start in Nashville nine days ago.
St. Louis tried with just over five and a half minutes for the same empty net comeback Vegas did on Monday. They came close, with Robert Thomas scoring off the rebound at 16:34 to get it to 3-2. Finally though, after many gnashing teeth and raised blood pressures, Tomas Hertl put a bow on the game with his 13th goal of the season; the streak (and funk hopefully soon after) was dead and buried.
needed a W
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) January 24, 2025
GOT A W
Next on the Marquee:
A quick rest and a spritz awaits for Vegas before a titanic showdown in Dallas tomorrow night against the Stars. There’s no more hype I can bring to this game that ESPN won’t pile on in heaps prior to the 4:30 P.M. (PST) puck drop. Their last game back in early December was brilliant. The playoff series last year (outside of the end) was great. Tomorrow night will be great, especially if their performance tonight is any indication. Till then…