National Hockey League
Vegas 4, Nashville 1
When: 6:00 PM ET, Monday, January 15, 2024
Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
Referees: Tom Chmielewski, Kyle Rehman
Linesmen: Brandon Gawryletz, James Tobias
Attendance: 17719

Mark Stone recorded the first regular-season hat trick of his career to help lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Monday in Las Vegas.

Jonathan Marchessault also scored a goal, Chandler Stephenson and Pavel Dorofeyev each added two assists and Logan Thompson made 34 saves for Vegas, which improved to 16-5-2 at home.

It marked the first time in 628 career regular-season games that Stone, who also has 26 two-goal games, registered a hat trick. However, Stone twice has had hat tricks in the playoffs, including one in Game 5 of last season's Stanley Cup Final against Florida.

Luke Evangelista scored for Nashville. Juuse Saros finished with 25 saves for the Predators, who had a seven-game road point streak (6-0-1) come to an end.

Nashville dominated early on, and Vegas didn't get a shot on goal until 14:51 had passed in the first period.

Despite the slow start, the Golden Knights still took a 1-0 lead at 15:25 of the first when Stone snapped in a rebound of a Dorofeyev shot.

The Golden Knights extended the lead to 2-0 early in the second period. Dorofeyev won a battle for the puck along the left boards and passed to Stephenson, who then found Stone cutting in alone down the slot. Stone then fired a wrist shot five-hole on Saros at the 1:11 mark.

Nashville cut it to 2-1 at the 17:22 mark when Evangelista, stationed in front of the net, redirected Alexandre Carrier's point shot into the top right corner for his ninth goal of the season.

Stone made it 3-1 with 24 seconds left in the period when he took a drop pass from Stephenson in the right circle on an odd-man rush and snapped a wrist shot past Saros' blocker to complete the hat trick with his 15th goal of the season.

Nashville pulled Saros for an extra attacker with 3:27 remaining and Marchessault, playing in his 600th career game, added an empty-netter with 19 seconds left to snap a nine-game goal-scoring drought.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Nashville   Vegas
Luke Evangelista 1 Points Mark Stone 3
Luke Evangelista 1 Goals Mark Stone 3
Alexandre Carrier 1 Assists Pavel Dorofeyev 2
N/A Power Play Goals N/A
N/A Short Handed Goals N/A
Juuse Saros .893 Save Percentage Logan Thompson .971
Juuse Saros 25 Saves Logan Thompson 34
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Nashville 35 1 0-4 2-2 4 19
Vegas 29 4 0-2 4-4 8 32
Upcoming Games
  • Vegas will play their next game at home against NY Rangers. The Golden Knights have a W/L % of .560 after a win and .579 after a loss.
  • Nashville will play their next game on the road against Los Angeles. The Predators have a W/L % of .542 after a win and .550 after a loss.