The Vegas Golden Knights secured their third consecutive win and completed the sweep of the season series against the San Jose Sharks with a 4-2 victory Tuesday night at SAP Center.
Ilya Samsonov stopped 20 of 22 shots (.909 save percentage) for his sixth straight win.
Mark Stone scored his 100th goal as a Golden Knight to give Vegas a 1-0 lead at 8:39 of the opening frame. After making a fantastic stick play at the blue line off a stretch pass from Shea Theodore, Stone broke ahead of the Sharks defender and beat netminder Alexandar Georgiev for point No. 601 of his career.
Less than two minutes later, Zach Whitecloud netted his third of the season to give Vegas a two-goal lead.
It was a shot Georgiev should have stopped, though he responded by settling in and finding his game.
He was especially busy in the second period, which was arguably Vegas’ best 20 minutes of the game despite being held off the board. Vegas outshot and outplayed San Jose by a significant margin and came away with a 90.36 percent expected goal share, but Georgiev stopped all 18 shots he faced.
At 9:49 of the second, San Jose broke through on the first power play of the game, as William Eklund beat Samsonov from the slot to make it 2-1.
Vegas got its first power play of the night at the tail end of the period, and Vegas pulled Samsonov to set up a 6-on-4 for the faceoff. Victor Olofsson had a great look on a last-second one-timer, but Georgiev was there to make the stop.
Through two periods, Vegas held a 31-16 edge in shots and a 24-14 advantage in scoring chances but led by just one where it mattered. But the Golden Knights entered the third period with 1:57 of carry-over time on the power play, and they made the most of it.
Just 70 seconds in, Olofsson bested Georgiev on his sixth shot of the game to restore Vegas’ two-goal lead. Jack Eichel made a fantastic play down low to draw all four Sharks towards him before sending a perfect backhand saucer feed to Olofsson in the far circle.
But once again, the Sharks cut the deficit to one courtesy of a power-play strike. San Jose hit iron twice on the man-advantage, but it was the second shot by Timothy Liljegren that found twine to make it 3-2 at 10:41.
The Sharks pulled Georgiev with under three minutes to go, but Vegas sealed the win with an empty-net insurance marker by long-time Sharks forward Tomas Hertl off a setup by Stone.
In the end, Vegas outshot the Sharks 42-22 and held a 79-48 edge in Corsi, 36-20 advantage in scoring chances and 15-8 margin in high-danger chances with a 73.75 percent expected goal share.
The Golden Knights surrendered two power-play goals but otherwise limited the Sharks’ offense substantially. In fact, the Sharks managed just six scoring chances at 5-on-5 in the second and third periods combined.
The Golden Knights never trailed, and Samsonov made timely saves to preserve Vegas’ lead and secure another two points. The power play looked much more creative, and though the Golden Knights weren’t able to finish a lot of chances to put the game away sooner, it was a solid road win.
The Golden Knights are now 14-0-3 all-time in San Jose and 3-0-0 in 2025. Vegas moves to 28-9-3 on the season, sliding back into first place in the NHL with 59 points.
The Golden Knights will return to the Fortress for a three-game homestand against the Islanders, Rangers and Wild starting on Thursday.
