Brett Howden scored two goals and Mark Stone and Pavel Dorofeyev each had a goal and two assists as the Vegas Golden Knights moved into first place in the Pacific Division with a 7-3 victory over the winless San Jose Sharks on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
It was the first two-goal game of Howden’s career. William Karlsson had a short-handed goal and an assist in his season debut, Jack Eichel added a goal and an assist, and Tanner Pearson also scored for Vegas, which improved to an NHL-best 6-0-0 at home this season. Alex Pietrangelo chipped in two assists.
Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves for Vegas, which finished with a season-high 42 shots on goal.
Mikael Granlund, Nico Sturm and Luke Kunin scored for San Jose, which has opened the season with a nine-game losing streak (0-7-2) for the second straight season after going 0-10-1 to begin last season. Vitek Vanecek finished with 35 saves.
Vegas outshot the Sharks 22-4 in the first period while building a 3-0 lead. Pearson started the scoring at the 1:57 mark with his second goal of the season, one-timing a Karlsson pass from the left circle.
Eichel made it 2-0 just 1:50 later with another one-timer from the left circle off a Stone pass for his third goal. Howden followed later in the period, beating Vanecek with a wrist shot on his blocker side.
San Jose cut it to 3-1 midway through the second period when Granlund jammed in his own rebound for his third goal in two games and fourth of the season. But Karlsson answered just 57 seconds later on the penalty kill when he outraced a diving Vanecek for a loose puck near the top of the right circle, chipped it to himself, spun around and fired a shot for his first goal of the season.
Dorofeyev made it 5-1 with a power-play goal with 34 seconds left in the period, roofing a one-timer from the right circle. But the Sharks cut it to 5-2 just 15 seconds later when Sturm fired a wrist shot under Samsonov’s glove that clanged in off the far post.
Stone extended the lead to 6-2 midway through the third period with his fourth goal. Kunin scored on a rebound to cut the lead to 6-3 before Howden finished the scoring with his fifth goal with 2:53 to go.
