Pavel Dorofeyev scored his first NHL goal, and Jiri Patera made 30 saves in his debut to help the Vegas Golden Knights secure a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night.
Michael Amadio, Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, and Alex Pietrangelo also found the back of the net for Vegas, which has now won six of their last seven games. This win expands their lead over Los Angeles atop the Pacific Division to three points.
“They were trying to play rush hockey,” Patera said. “It’s not always ideal for a goaltender, but we kept them on the outside, and I saw all the shots, so the guys made it a lot easier for me.”
Jordan Kyrou, Jakub Vrana, and Tyler Pitlick scored for St. Louis, while Jordan Binnington stopped 26 of 30 shots. The Blues have struggled, falling to 3-7-2 since Feb. 18.
“We’re playing some good hockey,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “We did some real good things in the offensive zone tonight. I really liked our game. It was unfortunate we didn’t get the win.”
Pietrangelo secured the victory with an empty-net goal with 7 seconds remaining.
“We just kept playing,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It was a good goal by them. I don’t look at it as a huge breakdown after breakdown after breakdown. That’s when you get worried. So they made a good play. They can score, but we also know they can give up some goals, so we just said, let’s just stick with it, get back to work, and we did.”
Dorofeyev, playing in his fourth game this season, used his helmet to deflect Karlsson’s rebound past Binnington in the third period, just 1:42 after Pitlick had tied the game at 3 at the 3:41 mark.
“He’s a really good kid, really skilled,” Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev said of Dorofeyev. “He scored a pretty nice goal today off the head. I think it’s really nice to see for him. He was actually working really hard today, and the guys were really happy for him.”
Kyrou scored his team-leading and career-best 30th goal on a pass from Robert Thomas to cut Vegas’ lead to 3-2 with 4:41 remaining in the second period.
“I think tonight was a good message,” Thomas said. “They’re at the top of the standings. They’ve been playing well all year, and we were right in it all the way to the end.”
Marchessault scored his 21st of the season, and Amadio netted his 13th in the third period to give Vegas a 3-1 lead.
Vrana scored his third goal of the season and second with the Blues on a power play 13:26 into the first period to tie it at 1.
Karlsson, playing in his 600th career NHL game, scored his 13th goal to give Vegas a 1-0 lead 8:05 into the game.
HOMECOMING
Barbashev received a standing ovation from the St. Louis crowd after being honored with a tribute video in the first period, marking his first game back in St. Louis since being traded to the Golden Knights for 2021 first-round draft pick Zach Dean on Feb. 26.
“I’ve been here for seven years,” Barbashev said. “I really tried to play my best over here. Sometimes it wasn’t really good, but at the end, it was fascinating to see.”
ON POINT
Blues C Pavel Buchnevich assisted on Kyrou’s goal to register a point in his ninth consecutive game. Buchnevich has four goals and 11 assists during that span.
UP NEXT
- Golden Knights: At Philadelphia on Tuesday night to close a five-game road trip.
- Blues: Host Minnesota on Wednesday night.