In Las Vegas, Reilly Smith picked up his first NHL hat trick for the Golden Knights on Saturday night, in a 4-1 win over the St Louis Blues.
“It took me over 600 games to get a hat trick,” Smith said. “It’s obviously a big moment for me and I’m happy about it, but there’s a lot of guys who helped me put the puck in the back of the net.”
Vegas hold the top spot in the West and is four points clear of second place.
“We’re trying to get home-ice advantage,” Vegas’ William Carrier said. “Finishing first in the League guarantees you’ll have that in every round.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves in the win.
“As a group on the back end, I thought we got back a lot quicker,” Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo said. “They have really good structure, so you’ve got to try and get that as quickly as possible. I thought we made good decisions with the puck tonight.”
Colton Parayko was the lone striker for the Blues.
“It’s a good team over there,” Parayko said. We’ve got to come ready at the puck drop. Sixty minutes, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for 60. Three games left here, we’re going to build something going into the playoffs.”
Chandler Stephenson added a single marker for the Knights.
“You don’t just turn on playoff hockey,” Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think it’s important to be playing important games as close to the start of playoffs as you can. It doesn’t get much closer than Monday night.”
Ville Husso made 26 saves in the loss.
“I didn’t think we were very good for two periods,” St. Louis head coach Craig Berube said. “We know how to generate offense against them. Tonight, we weren’t engaged early enough. We couldn’t hit the net.”
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