Stone, Golden Knights hold off Blues to end 4-game skid

ST. LOUIS -- Mark Stone had a goal and an assist to help the Vegas Golden Knights end a four-game skid with a 4-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

Tomas Hertl scored in his fourth straight game, and Victor Olofsson and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored for the Golden Knights (30-14-4), who were 0-3-1 in their previous four games and 1-5-1 in their past seven. Ilya Samsonov made 15 saves.

“I think defensively, we didn’t give up a lot,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “There was obviously some action with the goalie out late, gave up a goal, but I thought we played it pretty well for the most part. It was kind of a bad-angle shot, found a way in. Discipline was good. Won the special teams battle. … I thought we checked well and just never felt like we were in trouble.

“That’s how it seemed on the bench. They scored to make it 3-2 and now you’re starting to think, ‘Maybe we’re in trouble if we’re not careful,’ but there was no anxiety, which was nice, and we started on time. It was a good start, so there were a lot of positives.”

Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas scored for the Blues (23-22-4), who had won four of six (4-2-0), including a 5-4 shootout win at Vegas on Monday. Joel Hofer made 27 saves.

“It just wasn’t good enough,” Thomas said. “They were a better team start to finish. That’s why we lost the game.”

Stone gave Vegas a 1-0 lead 19 seconds into the first period, tying for the fifth-fastest goal in franchise history, when he stole a Cam Fowler outlet pass in tight and put a shot past Hofer.

“It was a fortunate kind of bounce,” Stone said. “I just tried to angle it and [Fowler] kind of shot it into my shin pads. Puck bounced into a good spot by him. You take those starts any time you can get them for sure.”

Olofsson made it 2-0 at 8:54 after a Vegas power play expired, taking a pass from Ivan Barbashev in the high slot and snapping a shot off the cross bar and in.

Kyrou cut it to 2-1 at 10:22 on a wrist shot from the right face-off dot off Dylan Holloway’s drop pass after Nicolas Roy lost the puck at the offensive zone blue line.

Dorofeyev made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 6:30 of the second period. He scored on a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle off Stone’s pass from the opposite side of the goal line.

Vegas was outshooting St. Louis 24-8 after two periods.

“We passed up some, but in totality of the game, they won a lot of puck battles versus us,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think we were something like 23 percent in the second period and that’s the period where I thought the game really got away from us. I know the first period wasn’t great either, but we had some bad turnovers in the first.

“But in the second period and the third period, it was 50-50 puck battles. Their puck support and determination on pucks, stronger on pucks was very evident.”

Thomas cut it to 3-2 at 16:34 of the third period with Hofer pulled for the extra attacker, finishing off a rebound of a Pavel Buchnevich shot from the left circle.

“We had some pressure on them; they did it to us a couple days ago,” Thomas said. “I think we had a bunch of confidence once it got to 3-2 that we could try and tie it and just weren’t able to find it.”

Hertl scored into an empty net at 19:33 for the 4-2 final. He extended his point streak to seven games (six goals, five assists) and his goal streak to four (five goals).

“We just played as a team,” Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev said. “We were excited before the game and (felt) it’s enough and we’ve just got to be better as a team and that’s what we did today. Started with the first shift, big goal and just kept on playing hard.”

NOTES: Stone’s goal tied Jonathan Marchessault, who also scored 19 seconds into a game on Feb. 8, 2024. William Karlsson holds the record at 10 seconds on April 28, 2021. … Dorofeyev has 10 points (seven goals, three assists) the past six games. … Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo extended his assist streak to four games (four assists). … Kyrou has 10 points (five goals, five assists) the past nine games.