The Golden Knights kept rolling Wednesday night, and the offense came from all over the place. Ivan Barbashev scored twice, Victor Olofsson piled up three points, and Mitch Marner also finished with three as Vegas knocked off the Utah Mammoth 5-3 for its fourth straight win.
It looked like the Knights might cruise after building a 4-1 lead, but Utah made it uncomfortable by slicing that margin to 4-3. William Karlsson answered quickly to push the lead back to two and settle things down.
Jack Eichel got Vegas on the board first with a power-play goal in the opening period, and Carter Hart stopped 14 shots to pick up his sixth win of the season. Nine different Golden Knights recorded a point as Vegas continued to keep pace with the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division.
Olofsson was the big driver again. With Pavel Dorofeyev out, he has stepped into a larger role and kept producing behind Eichel, Marner, and Mark Stone.
He had three points Wednesday, including a power-play goal in the second period, and now has nine points in seven games. That puts him among four players on the roster with better than a point-per-game average.
Barbashev’s night was just as important. He scored twice in a span of less than four minutes to help create that 4-1 cushion, giving him his 15th career multi-goal game.
The two-time Stanley Cup winner has only one NHL hat trick, which came on Mar. 21, 2019, with the St. Louis Blues.
Since arriving in Vegas in 2023, he has now recorded 10 two-goal games. He also became the fourth different Golden Knight to score at least twice in a game this season, joining Olofsson, Tomas Hertl, and Stone, who is still the only one with a hat trick.
Stone kept inching toward another franchise milestone, too. His assist on Eichel’s first-period goal gave him 416 points as a Golden Knight, leaving him one point closer to Jonathan Marchessault’s franchise scoring record. With Vegas starting a five-game homestand and Stone averaging more than a point per game, that mark is getting closer by the night.
Still, there was a stretch where the game got away from Vegas just enough to raise some eyebrows. Utah went 16 minutes without a shot on goal in the second period, then scored on its very next chance when Jack McBain ripped one into the top corner with Hart still down on his knees. Later, Dmitri Simashev made it a one-goal game at 9:07 of the third, turning what had looked like a comfortable night into a tighter finish than Vegas probably wanted.
The Golden Knights will host the Nashville Predators on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena before welcoming the last-place Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.
In Other News...
Golden Knights Face A Cap Decision As Parker Wotherspoon Nears Return
Parker Wotherspoons return appears to be getting close, with the defenseman taking line rushes alongside Dylan Coghlan at practice as the Golden Knights continue to sort out their blue line. Wotherspoon has been limited to six games this season because of an upper-body injury, and he has yet to register a point in those appearances, but his presence at practice is a sign Vegas may be ready to bring him back into the lineup soon.
What remains unclear is how the roster math will work when that happens. The Golden Knights are operating with a tight cap situation, so activating Wotherspoon could require a corresponding move before he is available for game action, leaving one more wrinkle for the team to sort through as it prepares for its next game. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Just Got A Needed Sign On Two Key Veterans
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Elsewhere in the division, Florida got a more encouraging update with veterans Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand back at practice, and coach Paul Maurice said both could be back in games within two weeks. For a Panthers team trying to steady itself early, getting those two back on the ice is the kind of development that can change the tone fast, even if the exact return dates are still not set. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights Return Home Facing A Real Test Against Utah
After a successful Eastern Conference road trip, the Golden Knights are back home to open a five-game homestand, and Utah brings a legitimate early test to the building. Vegas has been steady enough on the trip to keep momentum rolling, but this is the kind of game that can tell a lot about how the team settles in once it gets back to its own ice and its own rhythm.
The matchup also comes with a few interesting layers beyond the standings. Carter Hart is expected to get the start for Vegas, while Utah is projected to counter with Sebastian Cossa, and the lineups carry the kind of detail that makes a November game feel a little bigger than the calendar says it is. There are milestones in play for some of the Golden Knights, too, giving the homestand opener a little extra weight even before the puck drops. [Read more 🡒]