CGY@VGK: Stone rattles off natural hat trick in 3rd

LAS VEGAS -- Mark Stone scored a natural hat trick in the third period for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 6-2 victory against the Calgary Flames at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

It was Stone's second career hat trick in the regular season. His previous came on Jan. 15, 2024.

Jack Eichel had a goal and two assists, and Ivan Barbashev had three assists for the Golden Knights (7-2-0), who have won six of their past seven. Carter Hart made 28 saves.

Jake Middleton and Matt Coronato scored, and Dustin Wolf made 27 saves for the Flames (1-6-0), who were coming off a 4-2 win at the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.

Brett Howden opened the scoring for Vegas 25 seconds into the game. He took a backhand stretch pass from Mitch Marner, skated into the left circle, and roofed a shot over Wolf's glove.

Eichel pushed the lead to 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 9:34. He intercepted a pass from Yegor Sharangovich in the neutral zone before beating Wolf glove side on a breakaway.

Middleton cut it to 2-1 at 10:15 of the second period, scoring on an odd-man rush while short-handed.

Braeden Bowman responded on the same power play for Vegas to make it 3-1 at 11:03. He took a pass from Barbashev and buried a one-timer from the right circle.

Stone pushed it to 4-1 at 1:06 of the third period, tapping in backdoor pass from Eichel at the right post.

Stone then made it 5-1 with a power-play goal at 12:09, swatting in the rebound of Noah Hanifin's initial attempt. He completed the hat trick at 16:13 to make it 6-1.

Coronato scored a power-play goal at 18:40 for the 6-2 final.