In Yet Another Wild One With St. Louis, Golden Knights Rally For 5-4 Shootout Win Against Blues On Christmas Eve Eve Friday; Attendance Announced At 18,125
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
It’s just a little bizarre that the Golden Knights, sitting atop the NHL’s Western Conference, have nine of their 11 losses this season in the loud and noisy confines of T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The Knights entered tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues with a 9-9-0 record at home, while Vegas sported a glittering 14-2-1 mark in away ice rinks.
But tonight the Knights exhibited some clutch plays to pull out a 5-4 shootout win against the Blues before a Christmas Eve Eve crowd of 18,125. VGK now has a 24-11-1 record, which is good for 49 points and tops in the West.
VGK center Chandler Stephenson scored the tying goal with only a minute and 36 seconds left in regulation time and then he showed up in the shootout to save the VGK when he scored a do-or-die goal to tie the shootout. Then, Mark Stone notched the game-winner in the shootout and the VGK skated away with a 5-4 win in another wild, back-and-forth game against St. Louis.
T-Mobile Arena’s bouncy backboards came in handy on Stephenson’s game-tying goal in the waning minutes when the puck ricocheted from behind the St. Louis goal and landed at Stephenson’s stick. He tucked the puck in behind St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington.
Here’s Stone on linemate Michael Amadio, who chipped in with a goal and two assists.
Here’s Stone talking about Stephenson.
Against a 16-17-1 St. Louis club, the Knights scored first on Blues goalie Jordan Binnington when the netminder’s former teammate, VGK defenseman Alex Pietrangelo skated in from the right point on a diagonal to fire a backhander past the goaltender at 5:22.
The Knights are missing goal scorers Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault and playmaking defenseman Shea Theodore to injuries. Paul Cotter, Zach Whitecloud and Brett Howden are still out, too.
VGK goalie Logan Thompson stopped all eight St. Louis shots on goal in the first 20 minutes.
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The Knights’ 1-0 lead didn’t last long in the second period. Pavel Buchnevich fired a wrister into the upper-right corner past Thompson and it was 1-1 just 39 seconds into the middle stanza.
Vegas and St. Louis then swapped goals. Mark Stone of VGK notched his 15th and Vladimir Tarasenko scored a power play goal, his 10th, and it was 2-2 midway through the middle stanza.
The Knights failed to break out of their own zone and eventually the puck found the stick of St. Louis/Justin Faulk, who scored to give the Blues a 3-2 lead.
And with less than 90 seconds to go in the second, Stone made a gorgeous pass to Michael Amadio, who buried the puck for his third goal of the season.
St. Louis and Vegas often play wild games here in Las Vegas and tonight looks like another one. After two periods: Vegas 3 St. Louis 3.
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The Knights had some decent scoring chances but couldn’t convert.
Then, Noel Acciari gave St. Louis a 4-3 lead midway through the final stanza before Stephenson tied the game at four and Stone won it in the shootout.
