Golden Knights’ Stone says team took ‘initiative’

The Vegas Golden Knights didn’t get off to the start they wanted in a 5-2 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

They found themselves trailing after the first period for the 13^th time this season. The Golden Knights were also limited to four shots in the period.

Things changed in the second when Mark Stone got things going with a goal 51 seconds in the period. Nicolas Hague followed up at 2:13, before Pavel Dorofeyev wrapped up the three-goal period with a goal at 18:22.

“There wasn’t a ton going on in the first period, right? We gave up an early goal, not a great defensive play by us, but there really wasn’t a ton going on in the first period for either side after that,” Stone said. “I thought we decided to kind of take initiative and get some pucks to the net and force their goalie to make saves, and we had a couple good plays in the second period to take the lead.”

Unlike Tuesday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, Vegas continued to push the game. Alexander Holtz added a fourth goal at 2:46 of the third to give the Golden Knights a three-goal cushion.

“It was a big goal to get it to 4-1. When you can stretch the lead, it makes it that much more difficult for teams to come back,” Stone said. “That was kind of something that we didn’t do in the Montreal game. … I thought tonight we were able to get the lead to three with ‘Holtzy’’s goal.

“We really locked it down.”