The Vegas Golden Knights wasted no time taking control Thursday night, then let Mark Stone put the whole thing away in style.
Vegas rolled past the Calgary Flames 6-2 at T-Mobile Arena, getting a hat trick from its captain and another sharp performance from a lineup that kept piling on. The Golden Knights improved to 7-2-0, while Calgary fell to 1-7-0.
The opening minute set the tone. Just 26 seconds in, Brett Howden finished off a feed from Mitch Marner, who threaded a backhanded pass up ice before Howden buried a top-shelf shot past Dustin Wolf. Later in the first period, Jack Eichel made it 2-0 with his fifth goal of the season, jumping on a shorthanded breakaway at the halfway point of the period after intercepting a pass from Yegor Sharangovich.
Calgary trimmed the margin in the second when Jacob Middleton scored, but Vegas answered right back. Braeden Bowman restored the two-goal cushion on the power play, with Ivan Barbashev setting him up in the slot for a shot that slipped through Wolf.
Then the third period turned into the Mark Stone show.
Stone scored three times in the frame for the second hat trick of his career, starting a little more than a minute in when he tapped home a back-door pass from Eichel. He struck again with 7:50 left, banking in the rebound off a Noah Hanifin shot. Four minutes later, Stone completed the natural hat trick with help from Eichel and Marner.
Matt Coronato added a second goal for Calgary, but the night belonged to Vegas, which finished off the 6-2 win behind Carter Hart, who earned his fourth victory and stopped 28 of 30 shots for a .933 save percentage.
Stone’s big night headlines the box score, but he wasn’t the only Golden Knight making noise. Eichel finished with a goal and two assists for three points, pushing his season total to 16 points (5G, 11A).
Barbashev also picked up three assists. Marner extended his six-game multi-point streak against Calgary, totaling 15 points (5G, 10A).
Howden added an early goal and extended his point streak to three games with 4 points (2G, 2A).
A few numbers from the night underline just how quickly Vegas is stacking production. Eichel is second in the league in points and first in faceoff wins.
Trevor Connelly is tied for second among rookies with five points. The Golden Knights also lead the league with 35 goals.
Stone is now tied with William Karlsson for third-most multi-goal periods in franchise history, and Stone and Eichel have connected on the same goal 114 times, the fourth most in franchise history.
Vegas now turns to Saturday, when the Golden Knights host the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7 p.m. PT in the second game of a three-game homestand.
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