The Vegas Golden Knights will try to complete a four-game homestand sweep on Monday night when they host the Calgary Flames in Las Vegas.
The Golden Knights own the best home-ice record in the NHL (6-0-0), outscoring their opponents 34-16 in the process. Vegas has scored six or more goals in four of the six wins, including the past three in a row, a franchise record.
The Golden Knights opened the homestand with a 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday. They followed that with a 6-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday and then cruised to a 7-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
Mark Stone had a goal and two assists against the Sharks to move into the league lead in both points (17) and assists (13) while William Karlsson, who missed the first eight games of the season with an undisclosed injury, had a goal and an assist in his season debut.
Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo added two assists, his third consecutive multi-assist game. Pietrangelo has 11 assists this season, including eight over the past three games, and ranks second among defensemen in assists behind Colorado’s Cale Makar (12).
Karlsson, who had 30 goals and 30 assists last season, showed no signs of rust in his debut, needing only 17 seconds during his first shift of the season to set up Tanner Pearson for the first goal of the game. Vegas jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead, firing 22 shots on goal in the process.
Karlsson added a highlight-reel short-handed goal in the second period to make it 4-1, outracing San Jose goalie Vitek Vanecek for a loose puck at the top of the right circle. Karlsson chipped the puck away from Vanecek, then retrieved it in the right corner before skating back and calmly firing a shot into an open net.
“I like to watch him play,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said of Karlsson. “That’s the simplest compliment. I love watching him play the game. He plays it the right way. He plays with pace, he can score. You look at the short-handed goal he scores. It’s 3-1, they get back in the game, and he takes the wind out of their sails. Just a hustle play.”
Calgary, which opened the season with four straight wins, has lost three of its past four (1-2-1), including back-to-back home games against the Carolina Hurricanes (4-2) on Thursday and the unbeaten Winnipeg Jets 5-3 on Saturday.
Cole Perfetti scored the game-winner for the Jets on a power play with 3:44 remaining after Nazem Kadri was called for a slashing penalty on Neal Pionk. Mason Appleton added an empty-netter to seal the win for Winnipeg.
Kadri, who had tied the score 3-3 with his fourth goal of the season, made no secret of his displeasure with the penalty called on him that set up the game-winner.
“What are you going to do?” he said. “It’s a great game, we had a great game on our hands, (and) it’s very unfortunate that’s what it came down to. Feel like you have to have some feel for the game, especially when they’re coming off a five-on-three (power-play). To have that one called is upsetting.”
“It is what it is,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “You move on and make sure we’re fighting for the win in our next game.”
The Flames are 2-0-1 on the road this season, including a 6-5 overtime win at Vancouver and a 4-1 victory at Edmonton.
–Field Level Media