Despite the Vegas Golden Knights dropping a tight 5-3 contest to the Minnesota Wild on home ice on Monday night, there were still a few things to celebrate for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Besides Alex Pietrangelo playing in his 1,000th career National Hockey League — and being honored accordingly — Mark Stone also accomplished a remarkable franchise feat in the loss.
Stone scored Vegas’ third goal in the final frame, decreasing Minnesota’s lead to 4-3 and increasing his home point streak to 11 games.
“With his goal, Mark Stone (4-12–16) matches the Vegas record for longest home point streak (11 GP),” wrote VGK Communications on X.
Impressive work by Stone, who tied former Golden Knight Reilly Smith, who opened up an 11-game point streak of his own back in 2018-19. Still, Stone would likely be happier if his team had come out on top on Monday night.
Bruce Cassidy not happy with his team’s play
The Golden Knights have been playing inspired hockey as of late, winning seven of their last 10 and again looking like a contender to win the Pacific Division. But that wasn’t the case at T-Mobile Arena on Monday.
“I thought we mismanaged pucks between the blues after the first five minutes,” Golden Knights bench boss Bruce Cassidy explained afterwards, per The Associated Press. “I’m not making excuses but I was concerned today about how our energy level would be. It started out well and then some of the guys we rely on didn’t quite have it tonight either.”
Stone was one of the few who did come to play, ripping a shot from the top of the right circle past Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson to get his team back in the game. It was his first goal since a Jan. 15 hat trick against the Nashville Predators. Over that eight-game drought, he still managed to provide seven assists.
On the 2023-24 campaign, Mark Stone is up to 52 points, 113 shots and a plus-2 rating over 53 appearances for the Knights. With Jack Eichel still on the shelf, he and Jonathan Marchessault remain the catalysts of this offense.
The Golden Knights will look to shake it off after a short break; Vegas isn’t back in action until the Carolina Hurricanes visit the strip on Saturday.
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