LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – DECEMBER 10: Jonathan Marchessault #81 of the Vegas Golden Knights scores the game-winning goal against Kaapo Kahkonen #36 of the San Jose Sharks in a shootout at T-Mobile Arena on December 10, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Zak Krill/NHLI via Getty Images)
Jonathan Marchessault scored twice in regulation and had a goal in the shootout to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 5-4 win over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday night.
Chandler Stephenson and Brayden McNabb also scored for the Golden Knights, who have won three straight and five of their last six to lead the league with 43 points. Jiri Patera stopped 35 shots in his season debut.
Mike Hoffman had two goals, and Mario Ferraro and Calen Addison also scored for San Jose, which had won five of its previous seven games. Kaapo Kahkonen finished with 23 saves.
The teams put on a much better show for local fans than the Raiders did in a 3-0 loss to the Vikings hours earlier in the NFL’s lowest-scoring game in 16 years less than two miles away at Allegiant Stadium.
After blowing leads of 3-1 and 4-2 in the third period, the Golden Knights survived overtime and got goals from Marchessault and Jack Eichel in the shootout for the win.
Already having scored twice in regulation, Marchessault said he studied Kahkonen’s first two save attempts during the shootout and was confident when he came out to attempt the game-winner.
“He played pretty deep there, so that kind of works into my strength to be able to just shoot the puck and, you know, just looking for a hole and shot it,” said Marchessault, who leads Vegas with 14 goals.
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The Golden Knights were playing the second of a back-to-back after a Saturday win at Dallas, where they finished a quick two-game trip. The defending champs opened a four-game homestand after playing 10 of their previous 13 on the road.
“It’s great,” Eichel said. “Feels like we’ve been on the road for quite a while. We’ve had a few games here, but not too many. So take advantage of a little home cooking sleeping in your own bed and spending time with your family. Obviously, it’s the holidays. But we got a couple of games this week we got to take care of, so it’s nice to be home.”
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McNabb extended Vegas’ lead to 3-1 at 1:43 of the third with a wicked snipe from the left circle, beating Kahkonen far side with his second goal of the season.
Hoffman answered a little more than two minutes later on the power play when he bounced the puck off Vegas defenseman Kaedan Korczak’s skate to cut the Knights’ lead to one.
Marchessault’s second of the night and 14th of the season pushed the Golden Knights’ lead back to two at 9:23, but Addison brought the Sharks within striking distance with 3:45 left.
Hoffman scored his second of the night with 39 seconds left, tying the game.
After opening the season 3-15-2, the Sharks head home with a 5-2-1 mark in their last eight games.
“We’ve created a blueprint of how we’re gonna have success here over the last month,” Sharks coach David Quinn. “We’ve been doing it, but not as consistently as we have over the last two games, and our guys pretty much understand how we’re going to have success. I thought we defended pretty well. Not a lot of big-time chances. I thought they had a five-minute stretch in the third where they kind of hemmed us in a little bit, but a month ago that’s 25 minutes of hemmed-in hockey that we were trying to fight through.”
UP NEXT
Sharks: Host Winnipeg on Tuesday night.
Golden Knights: Host Calgary on Tuesday night.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
