Vegas is golden again, beating Stars 6-1 with 6 goal scorers
DALLAS (AP) — Vegas captain Mark Stone, Zach Whitecloud, Nicholas Roy and Paul Cotter each had a goal and an assist and the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights wrapped up their season series against the Dallas Stars with a 6-1 victory Saturday.
The Golden Knights, at 18-5-5 just past one-third of the way through their regular-season schedule, have an NHL-high 41 points. Dallas is 15-8-3 for 33 points. It has three regulation losses in its last four games, and won a shootout in the other, since an 8-1 victory over Tampa Bay a week earlier.
Logan Thompson had 19 saves for Vegas, which had six goal scorers. Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger stopped 20 of 26 shots.
Chandler Stephenson put Vegas ahead to stay just 2 1/2 minutes into the game on his third goal of the season, a short backhander after Whitecloud's shot got blocked by teammate Brett Howden in front of the net. That came not long after Stephenson had a short snap shot knocked away by Oettinger.
Whitecloud made it 2-0 with a wrister from the top of the left circle after some nifty puck movement, with William Carrier taking a pass from Roy and then dropping it to the trailing Whitecloud.
The previous four regular-season games between the Knights and Stars, going back to last season, had all gone beyond regulation. Las Vegas won a shootout at home Oct. 17 in the second game of this season and won in overtime in Dallas on Nov. 22. Plus, three of the six games in their Western Conference Final last May went to overtime.
This time, the Knights led 3-1 after the first period on Stone's eighth goal, which he got after his initial shot ricocheted off a defender's skate right back to him. Roy got his goal in the second period, while Pavel Dorofeyev and Cotter scored in the third.
Evgenii Dadanov got the lone Dallas goal midway through the first period, knocking in a ricochet after Thompson knocked down Stars captain Jamie Benn's shot with his glove without being able to control the puck.
The Golden Knights wrapped up their annual dads' trip, which began with a 6-3 win in St. Louis on Wednesday night. They are 9-0-1 when accompanied on trips by their dads.
Stars center Roope Hintz, who scored twice in the third period Thursday at Washington after six games without a goal, was out because of illness. Vegas forward Michael Amadio missed the game for personal reasons.
UP NEXT
Golden Knights: Play the first of four consecutive home games, against San Jose on Sunday.
Stars: Host Detroit on Monday night in the second of three home games in a row.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL