Tuch, Theodore lead Golden Knights past Blues

[August 07, 2020]  Alex Tuch had two goals and an assist and Shea Theodore also scored twice to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 6-4 victory over the St. Louis Blues in a round-robin game of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers on Thursday at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Mark Stone scored what proved to be the game-winner with 7:29 left in the third period and Zach Whitecloud also scored for Vegas (2-0-0, 4 points) which will play Colorado (2-0-0, 4 points) for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference on Saturday. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 13 of 17 shots.

Colton Parayko scored two goals and David Perron and Troy Brouwer also scored for St. Louis (0-2-0, 0 points), which faces Dallas (0-2-0, 0 points) for the third seed on Sunday. Ryan O'Reilly and Zach Sanford each added two assists. Jordan Binnington finished with 32 saves.

Perron gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at the 4:02 mark of the first period with his second goal of the playoffs, firing a wrist shot from the high slot through Fleury's pads.

The two teams each scored three times in a wild second period. Parayko, left wide open in front of the net, made it 2-0 with a wrist shot over Fleury's shoulder and inside the right post.

Vegas then stormed back to take a 3-2 lead with three goals in the span of 6:23. Theodore started the comeback with a power-play goal with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that found its way under Binnington's glove. Tuch then tied it when he jammed in a rebound of a Nick Holden shot inside the left post and then gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead when he scored on a backhand shot in the slot 2 1/2 minute later.

Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (29) makes a save during warmup against the St. Louis Blues during Western Conference qualifications at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

The Blues answered with two goals in the span of 21 seconds to take a 4-3 lead. Parayko tied it when he circled the net and easily beat Fleury with a wraparound shot. Brouwer followed with a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle off a Tyler Bozak feed.

Whitecloud tied it again, 4-4, with the first goal of his NHL career early in the third period, one-timing a Nicolas Roy feed from the bottom of the right circle into the top far corner. Stone then redirected a crossing pass from Brayden McNabb to make it 5-4, and Theodore followed a little over two minutes later with his second goal of the game with a shot from the right point past Binnington's blocker side.

--Field Level Media

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