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Vegas Golden Knights Ground Red-Hot Lightning With 5-3 Win Before 18,376 Thursday

The Stone goal off a Pacioretty pass gave VGK a 3-2 lead in period two.

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

VGK winger Mark Stone took a feed from linemate Max Pacioretty, made a gorgeous move on Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and backhanded the puck into the net to give the Golden Knights 3-2 lead with less than four minutes left in period two.

The Knights never looked back. Ryan Reaves and Pacioretty netted goals at the start of period three to give the VGK a 5-2 lead over the red-hot Lightning and the Knights came away with a solid 5-3 win before 18,376 at the Big Ice House by the Strip Thursday evening.

Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty celebrate in second period.

The Stone goal countered a goal by Lightning sniper Steven Stamkos that tied the game at two apiece in the second period. Stamkos added the Lightning’s third goal with two minutes left in the game.

Tampa Bay’s Stamkos scores.

Fans enjoyed the big VGK win that stopped the Lightning win streak at 11.

 

The game also marked the debut of VGK defenseman Alec Martinez, who was acquired by Vegas from the LA Kings and was paired with VGK scrappy defenseman Jon Merrill.

Martinez celebrated his first VGK game with a goal in period one to knot the score at one.

Martinez

Here’s Martinez after the game.

Reaves post-game at his locker.

Pacioretty on the win streak.

VGK coach Pete DeBoer with his post-game comments:

Here’s a sample of DeBoer after the VGK 5-3 win.

The Knights improved to 32-22-8 and have 72 points in the ultra-tight Pacific Division.


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Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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