Alec Martinez scored two goals and Adin Hill stopped 20 shots to pick up his second shutout of the season as the Vegas Golden Knights snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Friday night in Las Vegas.
Alex Pietrangelo had a goal and two assists, William Karlsson had a goal and an assist and Brett Howden also scored for Vegas, which improved to 22-2-5 all-time against San Jose. Michael Amadio added two assists.
Kaapo Kahkonen finished with 34 saves for San Jose, which had a two-game winning streak snapped. The Sharks fell to 0-6-0 on the road this season, getting outscored 25-3 in the process.
Vegas, coming in off back-to-back regulation losses for the first time since last January, needed only 60 seconds to take a 1-0 lead. Pietrangelo scored his first goal of the season when he skated around the net and then tucked in a wraparound shot inside the left post.
The Golden Knights extended their lead to 2-0 midway through the period on Martinez’s one-timer from above the left circle through heavy traffic past Kahkonen’s blocker side.
San Jose, playing the second game of a back-to-back that began with a 3-2 home win over Edmonton, managed just 12 shots on goal over the first two periods. Tomas Hertl had the best scoring chance with a spinning shot from the right circle that clanged off the far post.
Vegas broke the game open with two goals in the first five minutes of the third period. Karlsson scored a short-handed goal, his team-leading eighth of the season, at the 2:24 mark when he snapped in a wrist shot from the right circle off a crossing pass from Jack Eichel. Martinez, left alone in the left circle, then made it 4-0 at the 4:40 mark with a wrist shot over Kahkonen’s right shoulder for his third goal of the season.
Howden shoveled in a rebound of a Jonas Rondbjerg shot to extend the lead to 5-0 midway through the period and finish the scoring.
–Field Level Media
