Late surge carries Golden Knights past Blues

[March 23, 2021]  Mark Stone had two goals and an assist and William Karlsson had a goal and two assists for the Vegas Golden Knights, who scored four times in the third period to hand the St. Louis Blues a 5-1 loss on Monday night in Las Vegas.

Jonathan Marchessault added a goal and an assist and Keegan Kolesar also scored for Vegas, which remained three points ahead of second-place Colorado in the West Division. The Golden Knights begin a two-game series with the Avalanche on Thursday night in Denver.

Robin Lehner, making just his second start since Feb. 7 after recovering from a concussion, stopped 15 of 16 shots to improve to 5-1-1 this season.

Vince Dunn scored for St. Louis, which had a two-game winning streak snapped and fell for just the sixth time in 18 road games this season (12-4-2). Jordan Binnington finished with 30 saves.

Vegas took a 1-0 lead at the 8:41 mark of the first period. Marchessault fired a sharp-angle shot from the bottom of the right circle through Binnington's pads for his ninth goal of the season.

St. Louis tied it at 6:42 of the second period when Dunn picked up a rebound of a Vladimir Tarasenko wraparound try that kicked out to the left circle. Dunn then sent a wrist shot through traffic into the top far corner for his fifth goal of the season.

The Golden Knights regained the lead 80 seconds into the third period with what turned out to be Stone's seventh game-winning goal of the season.

St. Louis Blues center Jordan Kyrou (25) and Vegas Golden Knights right wing Reilly Smith (19) battle for the puck during the first period at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: John Locher /POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports

The play started with Stone trying to make a crossing pass from the left circle, but the puck bounced off Dunn back to Stone in the slot, where he whirled and slid a shot toward the goal that deflected off Dunn's skate and past Binnington's stick into the net.

Kolesar made it 3-1 midway through the period with the first goal of his NHL career. He tapped in a rebound of a Nicolas Hague point shot and beat Binnington on his glove side.

The Golden Knights then sealed the win with two power-play goals in the span of 3:12 by Karlsson and Stone.

--Field Level Media

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