By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
A raucous gold-tinted crowd packed the Big Ice House on the Strip and the Vegas Golden Knights rewarded the deafeningly loud faithful with a goal in the first minute of each period of Game 3 as the VGK beat the San Jose Sharks, 6-3, behind Mark Stone’s first career Hat Trick Sunday night.
Every inch of the arena’s standing room only areas was packed with humanity and fans blew the roof off T-Mobile Arena when Stone scored on a backhander over the shoulder of shaky Sharks goalie Martin Jones 16 seconds into the game.
Here’s Stone at his locker after the game.
The atmosphere was jacked up in the building compared to the last few games of the regular season when it seemed both VGK players and fans alike were hungry to get the postseason started. There was a giant crowd that poured into the arena. Announced attendance was 18,461.
LVSportsBiz.com captured comments from VGK forward Max Pacioretty at his locker.
Shea Theodore talked about the team’s performance and the arena’s high energy here.
Fans were stoked.
Forward Max Pacioretty scored a power play goal, while Kevin Labanc scored for San Jose.
In period two, Paul Stastny scored 21 seconds into the period. He scored again off a gorgeous pass from Stone. After two periods, it was the Golden Knights leading, 4-1. Stone added his third goal of the game to give the Knights a 6-3 lead.
The third period featured an entertaining heavyweight fight between VGK’s Ryan Reaves and the Sharks’ Evander Kane. The haymakers were flying.
Here’s Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz checking out the monster crowd tonight.
And always good to see Lee Orchard, the “Golden Knight.”
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