Golden Knights score after 19 seconds, roll past Blues

Mark Stone scored a goal and added an assist for the Vegas Golden Knights, who snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win against the host St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

The Golden Knights captain helped his team avoid matching its worst skid since a five-gamer in March 2022. He also broke a five-game goalless streak with the quickest goal the Golden Knights have scored this season -- 19 seconds in.

Victor Olofsson, Pavel Dorofeyev and Tomas Hertl also scored for Vegas. Ilya Samsonov made 15 saves for the victory.

Jordan Kyrou scored his team-leading 21st goal and Robert Thomas also found the back of the net for the Blues, who lost for the second time in three games. Joel Hofer stopped 27 shots.

The Golden Knights dominated on both sides of the puck, holding the Blues to just 17 shots on goal and just eight through the first 40 minutes. St. Louis went more than 18 minutes during the first and second periods without a shot on Samsonov.

Stone wasted little time putting Vegas up 1-0, poking the puck away from Cam Fowler in the Blues' defensive zone and then beating Hofer. The goal tied for the fifth fastest in Golden Knights history.

Olofsson doubled the lead with 11:06 left in the opening period after Ivan Barbashev found the right winger alone just above the slot. Alex Pietrangelo also assisted on the play.

Kyrou got St. Louis on the scoreboard 88 seconds later off a drop pass from Dylan Holloway.

Vegas reclaimed a two-goal lead on Dorofeyev's power-play goal at 6:30 of the second period, assisted by Stone and Jack Eichel. The Golden Knights scored on the man advantage for the seventh game in a row.

Dorofeyev leads the team with 21 goals, and eight of those have come this month.

St. Louis pulled Hofer with more than five minutes left in regulation, and Thomas' goal with 3:26 remaining gave the Blues a chance to force overtime. However, Hertl scored an empty-netter with 37 seconds remaining, his sixth goal in as many games.

--Field Level Media