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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — And another one.
And another one.
And, the Vegas Golden Knights scored once again.
You get the point.
The VGK poured in five goals in the first period.
The Golden Knights took their a break from their typical close/overtime games with a blowout of the improving San Jose Sharks before an announced crowd of 18,092.
Vegas’ first four goals were scored by their centers — Brett Howden off an unselfish feed from Braeden Bowman, Mitch Marner on the power play when his pass deflected into the SJ goal off a defenseman’s skate, Colton Sissons on a feed from Keegan Kolesar and Tomas Hertl off Pavel Dorofeyev’s sweet pass after Dorofeyev made a nice steal.
Mark Stone scored his eighth of the season to complete the 5-0 scoring lead after the first period.
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The Sharks are much better and they are led by one of the NHL’s most dynamic players Macklin Celebrini, who scored in the second period for his 19th goal and 55th point this season.
The kid is a mere 19 years old and one of the league’s elite talents.
Original Misfit Reilly Smith matched Celebrini’s tally with his fifth toward the end of the second period and the Knights were cruising with a 6-1 lead with the game 2/3 over.
San Jose generated only nine shots on VGK goalie Carter Hart during the first two periods. while the VGK had 22 SoG.
The Knights’ scoring outburst was welcomed by a team that was missing its top scorer, Jack Eichel, and defenseman Shea Theodore to injuries. William Karlsson was another VGK center missing with an injury, prompting coach Bruce Cassidy to place assist specialist Mitch Marner as the center on the VGK’s top line between wingers Ivan Barbashev and Stone.
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Early in the third period, VGK were still enjoying a 6-1 advantage after two road losses to Calgary and Edmonton over the weekend.
Then Marner notched his second of the night and Vegas was cruising with a 7-1 advantage.
San Jose added a garbage time goal and VGK skated away with a 7-2 win to enjoy the Christmas break before Vegas hosts the powerful Colorado team at the Big Ice House by the Strip Saturday.
PSA