Golden Knights victorious in Pete DeBoer’s return to San Jose

Marc-Andre Fleury tried to keep a straight face during his answer but couldn’t do it, revealing his true feelings about Saturday.

Yes, it was great to give Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer a victory in his return to San Jose. But beating the Sharks was even better.

“It’s nice to get that win,” the goaltender said with a smirk.

The Knights renewed their rivalry with the Sharks after more than a year and rode a 24-save performance from Fleury to a 3-1 victory at SAP Center in San Jose, California.

Chandler Stephenson finished with a goal and an assist to help the Knights give DeBoer a victory in his first game against the Sharks since he was fired Dec. 11, 2019, after four-plus seasons.

“These games are never easy when you’re coming back into a situation like this,” DeBoer said. “Obviously, glad to win. I thought San Jose played a good game. I thought our guys played a good game. It was a hard-fought game at ice level.”

The Knights and Sharks faced off for the first time since Dec. 22, 2019, and picked up where they left off. There were heated words, hard hits and several wrestling matches throughout the first of their eight meetings this season.

But the Knights’ special teams were the difference, scoring three times on the power play and going 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

“I thought we kept a pretty simple mindset. Move the puck around, try to get shots to the net,” said defenseman Alec Martinez, who had two assists. “You got to get to the hard areas to score goals, and I think that’s what we did.”

Jonathan Marchessault scored with the man advantage in the first period, and Mark Stone added a power-play goal in the second.

Stephenson’s run of good fortune continued in the third period when Alex Tuch’s pass went off his skate for a 3-1 lead at 6:45. Stephenson has scored five goals, including one that went off his back and another when he was trying to make a pass.

“I just tried to get open for (Tuch) and, yeah, off my skate and in,” Stephenson said. “I’ll take it.”

Fleury made his third straight start with Robin Lehner (upper body) not on the trip and improved to 6-1. He has allowed one goal or fewer in four of his seven appearances and owns a sparkling 1.58 goals-against average and .934 save percentage.

Fleury had 11 saves in the first period before the Knights clamped down defensively in the final 40 minutes. The lone breakdown came late in the second period when Tomas Hertl converted a two-on-one for the Sharks, who were playing their home opener.

“When you can play two, three games in a row, I feel like you maybe feel the game a little better,” Fleury said. “You’re more relaxed back there. It doesn’t feel so far away since your last game, so I think you can be more comfortable maybe right from the start.”

The Knights were able to back Fleury unlike Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Anaheim when they generated a season-low 21 shots on goal.

Marchessault continued his hot streak, as he batted the puck out of the air after his initial shot was deflected to put the Knights ahead at 13:13 of the first period.

Stone backhanded in a rebound midway through the second period for his third game-winning goal of the season, which trails only Toronto’s Auston Matthews (five) among NHL leaders.

“I think we weren’t really too happy with our last performance,” Martinez said. “Every time (Fleury is) in net, and obviously when (Lehner is) in net, we want to put forth our best effort and try to give them some run support because they certainly always have our back.”

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