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Story by Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell of LVSportsBiz.com
A St. Louis Blues vs Vegas Golden Knights game is typically a wild maelstrom at T-Mobile Arena. Overtime games. Leads that come and go. And that former Misfit/pesky forward David Perron getting under the skin of Golden Knights players.
Even crowd igniter Cameron Hughes, the dancing guy who throws T-shirts into the crowd, was at Monday’s VGK/Blues game.
Robin Lehner was in goal for the Golden Knights, while Max Pacioretty, Cody Glass and Dylan Coghlan were scratches. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is still injured and out.
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The Golden Knights were in the Blues’ end of the ice for much of the first period, with Alex Tuch partnered with Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone with Pacioretty out getting several scoring chances.
But it was forward Jonathan Marchessault scoring the period’s lone goal when he fired in a goal from a sharp angle to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead.
The Golden Knights outshot St. Louis, 14-6, in period one and controlled play most of the first stanza.
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The Blues tied the score at one when defenseman Vince Dunn snapped a wrist shot from the left side and it beat Lehner to the far side of the net. The shot’s placement was terrific, just sliding by Lehner’s left arm and into the back of the net.
Hughes is in town for a book signing.
Dunn’s goal was the sole goal of the middle stanza. St. Louis outshot Vegas, 7-6, after two periods.
After two periods, it was 1-1. Another close one between the Golden Knights and Blues.
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Early in the third period, Mark Stone took a shot that was wide of the net but it ricocheted off the skate of a St. Louis Blues player and past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington and the VGK had a 2-1 lead.
A few minutes later, Lehner came up big with a save on the Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko to preserve the VGK one-goal edge.
Then VGK’s Keegan Kolesar celebrated his first NHL goal by sliding the puck by Binnington to give the Golden Knights a 3-1 lead.
The Knights salted the win with William Karlsson picked up his own rebound and fired it into the Blues net for a power play goal and 4-1 lead.
Stone scored his second of the game and the Knights’ dominating third period resulted in a 5-1 win.
It was one of the Knights’ best defensive games of the season as the Blues were held to only 16 shots on goal, including three in the decisive third period.
The Knights improve to 22-7-1, while the Blues drop to 16-11-5.
The Golden Knights box score:
Source: ESPN