3 takeaways: Knights hold off Sharks despite penalty kill slip-ups
All metrics pointed to the Golden Knights running away with this one.
Possession, shot total, whatever. It should’ve been a convincing win.
All except the usually stout penalty kill. The Knights gave up two power-play goals to the San Jose Sharks, but hung on for a 4-2 road win at SAP Center on Tuesday.
The Knights had a two-goal lead twice, but San Jose cut into it with power-play goals from forward William Eklund and defenseman Timothy Liljegren.
But the Knights (28-9-3) did more than enough early on to sweep the three-game season series against the Sharks and win their third straight game and ninth in their last 10.
”All in all, I felt comfortable all night,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought everyone was engaged in the game and playing the right way.”
Captain Mark Stone scored his 100th goal with the Knights, and right wing Victor Olofsson scored a power-play goal to push the Knights to a league-best 59 points with one more game before the halfway mark of the season.
Left wing Tomas Hertl scored for the first time against his former team, and goaltender Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves for his sixth consecutive win. Samsonov has allowed two goals or fewer in each of those starts.
“We’re a veteran group,” right wing Keegan Kolesar said. “We know what our game looks like when we’re at our best.”
Stone scored for the third straight game at 8:39 of the first when he got past Sharks defenseman Cody Ceci for a partial breakaway and beat goaltender Alexandar Georgiev glove side for a 1-0 lead.
Defenseman Zach Whitecloud scored 1:29 later to make it 2-0 when he received a pass from center Brett Howden, cut to the right circle and squeaked it through Georgiev’s five-hole.
San Jose (13-24-6) got one back in the second period on a power-play goal from Eklund, but the Knights responded with one of their own on the man advantage when Olofsson converted on a one-timer 1:10 into the third to make it 3-1.
After the Knights allowed a power-play goal for the third straight game, they gave up their fourth in that span on Liljegren’s goal at 10:41 of the third. They gave up just six power-play goals in their previous 18 games.
Cassidy noted the second kill was more of not getting the clear they needed. The top PK unit was on the ice for 1:20, which included Liljegren hitting a post 28 seconds before his goal.
“We didn’t panic after that,” Cassidy said. “I thought we got back to our game after that and did what we needed to do.”
The Knights did more than enough to find a way to win again. They improved to 17-3-1 in their past 21 games dating back to Nov. 21.
“I think we’ve been finding ways to score. We’ve been playing the right way,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “It starts in the D-zone. When that happens, more times than not, we’re going to be on the good end of it.”
Here are three takeaways from the win:
1. Domination in San Jose
Take away the first-round playoff series from 2019, and the Knights have set up shop at SAP Center through eight seasons.
The Knights improved to 14-0-3 all-time in the regular season at the “Shark Tank,” including two wins this season, and improved to 27-2-5 all-time against their Pacific Division rivals.
The Knights became the second franchise in NHL history with points in each of its first 17 road games against an opponent, joining the Montreal Canadiens, who did it in 21 games against the Vancouver Canucks and 17 games against the Washington Capitals.
Also of note: The Knights have lost just once in regulation in the past 28 meetings.
2. Hertl gets one
Hertl was adored with praise, cheers and a tribute video when he made his first return trip to San Jose on Dec. 27. He was kept off the score sheet that night.
Not this time. His empty-net goal with 1:20 remaining was by way of Stone stealing the puck away from Sharks center Macklin Celebrini and getting it to Hertl for the easy wrist shot from deep.
Hertl scored his 11th goal of the season and first since Dec. 23.
3. More milestones for Stone
One game after scoring his 600th NHL point, Stone continued racking up the accolades.
Not only did he hit the century mark on his goal, but Stone did it in his 300th game with the Knights.
Stone became the fourth Knights player to reach 100 goals with the franchise, joining center William Karlsson (159) and former forwards Jonathan Marchessault (192) and Reilly Smith (124).
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
