Golden Knights’ penalty kill ends party against Blues

Whenever the Golden Knights and St. Louis Blues get together lately, the games seem to end up like a high school house party with no supervision. Totally out of control.

Just as Saturday’s matchup threatened to turn into another jump-off-the-roof-into-the-swimming-pool kind of night, the Knights’ penalty kill shut off the music and sent everyone home.

After being burned by the Blues’ power play twice the previous night, the Knights got their revenge by killing a five-on-three in the third period and eliminated any drama from an eventual 5-1 victory at Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

“I think just speaking generically, that’s how we want to play moving forward,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “We wanted to tighten up our (defensive) zone. I thought our (penalty) kill did a great job, especially at that five-on-three. The six-on-five at the end of the game, they did a good job blocking shots and being in those lanes. It’s a good way to finish this trip.”

The past four regular-season games between the Knights and Blues went to overtime or a shootout, and the teams needed extra time in six of their 11 meetings before Saturday.

The Knights’ overtime win Friday in the opener of the back to back was the third time in the past four regular-season games against the Blues that the score has ended 5-4. The one game that didn’t was a 6-5 Knights’ OT victory Feb. 13, 2020, when they came from two goals down.

Their postseason matchup also was high-scoring, with Theodore and Alex Tuch each netting two goals in the Knights’ 6-4 victory during round-robin play.

On Saturday, the Knights carried a 1-0 lead into the third period before Mark Stone and Sammy Blais traded goals to set up what appeared to be another wild finish.

Max Pacioretty scored his 13th goal to put the Knights ahead 3-1 when Patrick Brown and Chandler Stephenson went to the penalty box midway through the period.

St. Louis scored twice on the power play in the third Friday and was 9-for-18 in its past six games, but couldn’t convert on a five-on-three for 53 seconds.

Stone scored 39 seconds after the second penalty expired for a 4-1 advantage, and Tuch added an empty-net goal to match Pacioretty for the team lead.

Party over.

“We reset overnight, and the coaches did a good job of kind of identifying some things we wanted to make sure we cleaned up (on the penalty kill),” coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought the guys really got it back to where it’s been all year, which is as a weapon for us and the ability to take away momentum from the other team, and I thought that’s what it did tonight.”

Here are three more takeaways from the victory:

1. Fatigued Fleury

Marc-Andre Fleury stayed on his knees a few extra seconds after the whistle to catch his breath late in the third period. It was obvious the long trip took its toll.

Fleury, who had a false positive test for COVID-19 on Thursday, started for the 15th time in the past 16 games and finished with 34 stops. He made a key save on Ryan O’Reilly at the second-period buzzer and turned away six shots while the Knights were short-handed in the third period.

Fleury continues to lead the NHL in goals-against average (1.81) and save percentage (.935).

The fact that he started both games of the back to back could indicate Robin Lehner is close to returning from his conditioning loan with the Silver Knights.

The Knights play San Jose on Monday at T-Mobile Arena to open a stretch of five games in eight days.

“The COVID thing I was in my room for a day and a half not moving too much from my bed, so a little time to recover there,” Fleury said. “Every game I’m just trying to do my best, keep our team in the game. It doesn’t matter if my legs are tired or not. Just trying to find a way to keep the game close.”

2. Stone sets scoring mark

At the start of the week, Stone was named the league’s first star. He ended it on a high note, too.

Stone scored twice during the Knights’ four-goal outburst in the third period Saturday and has 14 points in the past seven games he’s played (five goals, nine assists).

The captain leads the team with 31 points in 22 games and is the fastest player to reach that mark in Knights history. Jonathan Marchessault needed 30 games during the 2017-18 season.

“I think my success goes hand in hand with the team’s success,” Stone said. “When we’re winning games, everybody’s numbers get kind of inflated. We’re playing really good hockey right now, so when we’re playing well, our depth allows everybody to have a matchup.”

3. Reaves’ bodyguard

Ryan Reaves is usually the one sticking up for teammates. That made the sight of Keegan Kolesar stepping in to defend Reaves even more bizarre.

During the first period, Reaves took a hard, clean hit behind the net from Blues rookie Dakota Joshua. While Reaves skated away from the play, Kolesar approached Joshua and gave him a couple of jabs with the shaft of his stick. After a few words, the two dropped the gloves.

The timing of the bout seemed odd, since the Knights controlled play early and there was no need to wake up the Blues.

Kolesar is no stranger to throwing punches. Joshua, 24, was known as a physical player at Ohio State, but that was the first fight of his seven-game NHL career and his second in pro hockey.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.