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Stone's 1st regular-season hat trick propels Golden Knights to 4-1 win over Predators.

Mon, Jan 15, 2024
NHL News (AP)

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Mark Stone had his first regular-season hat trick and Logan Thompson made 34 saves to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Monday.

Stone's other hat trick was in the clinching Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final in which the Knights beat the Florida Panthers 9-3.

Jonathan Marchessault added an empty-net goal with 17.9 seconds left off a long pass from Alex Pietrangelo for his 18th goal this season. Chandler Stephenson and Pavel Dorofeyev each had two assists for the Knights.

Luke Evangelista scored for the Panthers, and Juuse Saros made 26 stops.

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Vegas has won two of its past three games and three of five. Nashville entered this game have won three of four.

The Knights didn't have a shot on goal until Pietrangelo's blast from the right point with 5:08 left in the first period. Then 33 seconds later, Stone put Vegas ahead 1-0 by scoring off a rebound from the slot. That ended a seven-game goal drought for Stone, who last scored Dec. 27 at Anaheim.

Stone's goal also ended a three-game stretch in which the Knights didn't score over the first two periods.

He then scored again 1:11 into the second, netting the puck from the right circle off the rush.

Evangelista tipped in Alexandre Carrier's shot with 2:28 left in the second to put the Predators on the board. But the Knights answered two minutes later on 3-on-1 breakaway when Stone buried Stephenson's drop pass for the 4-on-4 goal to put Vegas ahead 3-1.

Brendan Brisson, selected 29th overall by the Knights in the 2020 draft, made his NHL debut. He's the club's third first-rounder in its seven-year history to make his debut, and the 22-year-old center had one shot on goal in 11:08 of ice time.

MARCHESSAULT MILESTONE

Marchessault played in his 600th career game. He is the Knights' career leader in games played (476), points (377), goals (168) and assists (210). Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP after leading the Knights to their first Stanley Cup championship.

UP NEXT

Predators: At Los Angeles on Thursday.

Golden Knights: Host the New York Rangers on Thursday.

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