LAS VEGAS — Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone each had a goal and an assist to help the Vegas Golden Knights beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1 on Monday night.
Marc-Andre Fleury, making his 16th start in 17 games, finished with 23 saves to improve to 14-5-0 this season. Fleury earned his 481st career win, inching closer to Ed Belfour, who ranks fourth with 484.
Pacioretty scored in the first period and delivered a perfect backhand pass early in the third to Stone, who one-timed a wrist shot at 1:02 to make it 2-0. It ended up being Stone’s sixth game-winning goal.
Timo Meier scored late for San Jose, and Devan Dubnyk stopped 34 shots.
The Golden Knights are 12-1-3 in 16 regular-season meetings with San Jose.
The Sharks dominated the first period, Vegas the second.
From the opening faceoff, the Golden Knights struggled to enter San Jose’s zone with possession, as the Sharks did a good job of challenging Vegas’ skaters at the blue line. And when the Knights were able to dump in, they couldn’t catch the Sharks, who were faster to the puck and much quicker in starting their breakout.
But the Golden Knights got a power play when Evander Kane was called for tripping a little more than eight minutes in. Eight seconds later Pacioretty lasered a wrist shot past Dubnyk from his familiar spot atop the right circle.
Vegas looked like a different team in the second, skating quicker, creating scoring chances and peppering Dubnyk with 16 shots — the second-most for the Golden Knights in a period this season.
Overall shot attempts were dominated by Vegas 31-9, including scoring chances (17-6) and high-danger chances (7-3).
Meier cut the lead in half with a little more than five minutes left with his sixth of the season.
UP NEXT
The teams play again Wednesday night.
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