Golden Knights’ stars outshining Wild’s top players in series

The Golden Knights’ depth has been evident during their West Division first-round playoff series, with 15 of the 20 skaters to appear recording at least one point. And that doesn’t include Marc-Andre Fleury’s assist in Game 3.

But it’s been the Knights’ front-line players who have carried the load against the Minnesota Wild en route to a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

“The right guys are scoring,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “Your big guys have to pitch in nightly. We’ve been getting that from those guys.”

Right wing Mark Stone leads the Knights with four points and shares the team lead in goals (three) with Alex Tuch, who has filled in capably on the top line in place of injured Max Pacioretty.

Stone jump-started the Game 3 comeback with his second-period goal and crushed the Wild’s spirit in the second period Saturday when he scored short-handed to put the Knights up 3-0.

The Misfit Line of William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith has combined for three goals and seven points. That includes Marchessault’s momentum-turning goal in Game 2 along with key tallies from Smith and Karlsson in Game 3.

In net, Fleury has stopped 112 of 116 shots he’s seen in the series and has a 0.99 goals-against average while outplaying Wild counterpart Cam Talbot.

Meanwhile, Minnesota’s stars haven’t produced offensively.

Rookie of the year favorite Kirill Kaprizov has one assist. Kevin Fiala, the team’s second-leading scorer in the regular season with 20 goals and 40 points, doesn’t have a point and smashed his stick over the crossbar in frustration at one point during Game 4.

Mats Zuccarello also has a zero in the points column, as Minnesota has gone 111:30 without scoring.

The line of Joel Eriksson Ek, Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno has been the only consistent performers for coach Dean Evason. Eriksson Ek has half of the team’s four goals in the series and also had two goals wiped out after successful challenges.

”We knew coming into the series with the whole (Pacioretty) being out … that goal a game was going to be difficult to fill,” DeBoer said. “We’ve gotten it from both our key guys and our depth guys, which has been critical.”

Goalie union

After the Knights’ self-inflicted goalie controversy erupted in the postseason bubble last year, DeBoer said they were intent on making sure it was “handled properly” this time.

So far, so good.

While Fleury has shouldered the load in net, goalie partner Robin Lehner has been his biggest fan. After the Game 4 shutout, Lehner sent a tweet with the emojis of three flowers, a heart and crossed swords, the latter of which represents the Knights on the social media platform.

DeBoer praised Lehner for how he’s handled the situation and intimated he’s sticking with Fleury as long as he stays hot.

“It’s a genuine happiness for him for having success that is real. The guys feed off that,” DeBoer said. “Both guys are going to be important, and we’ve got hopefully a long trail here. I’m sure they’re both going to play a role at different points, but right now, Flower’s rolling.”

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