In Sunrise, Max Pacioretty pitched in two goals and three points, and Mark Stone added a pair of goals and five points as the Vegas Golden Knights scored four times in the third period to rout the Panthers, 7-2, on Thursday night.
“Games like this happen, and then there’s games where you feel like you don’t touch the puck all night,” Stone said. “I thought everybody that went on the ice tonight controlled a lot of the game.”
Mark Stone had two goals and five points in Golden Knights win – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves for the win.
“Tonight was a tough game to play given the circumstances,” Pacioretty said. “We’ve been away from home for a long time and it would be pretty easy to have a letdown there and have a stinker of a game, but we know how valuable those points are. We know the position we’re in. We know we can’t have any slide.”
Mike Hoffman and Vincent Trocheck were the Panthers strikers.
“We tied it at 2, we have all the momentum and it seems like we just feel like we’re going to coast the rest of the way,” Trocheck said. “It’s a 2-2 game against one of the best teams in the League. Got to come out that next shift, that’s one of the most important shifts of the game, we get outworked on that one. Every goal we gave up, they outworked us.”
Jonathan Marchessault (power play), Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore (shorthanded) scored for the Knights.
“I thought [Fleury] made a couple of big saves, including the penalty shot,” Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer said. “Those are momentum-changing moments in the game, and I thought he really gave us a big save there and some momentum that shifted our way. And then I thought the group dug in in the second and third and really started to impose our will on the game and got rewarded for that.”
[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Panthers highlights]
Sergei Bobrovsky got the start and made 23 saves but was given the hook in the third period.
“The game was there, and then after the fourth goal, we stopped playing,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “We were outworked, outhustled, and outcompeted, whatever term you want to use.”
Samuel Montembeault did mop up work and made nines saves through the final 11 minutes.
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