Golden Knights score 7, ease past Predators for 7th straight win

LAS VEGAS – The Vegas Golden Knights scored seven unanswered goals en route to their seventh straight win, 7-2 against the Nashville Predators at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Mitch Marner, Shea Theodore, Cole Reinhardt, Alexander Holtz, and Keegan Kolesar all had a goal and an assist, and Mark Stone scored to extend his point streak to a career-high 11 games for the Golden Knights (24-11-12), who are 7-0-1 in their past eight. Akira Schmid made 27 saves.

“It was a close game up until the third period,” Schmid said. “I felt like every time [a goal was] announced, another one was getting scored right away.”

Luke Evangelista and Filip Forsberg scored for the Predators (23-21-4), who had won three in a row. Roman Josi had two assists, and Justus Annunen made 29 saves.

“Definitely got away from us,” Josi said. “The first period, they had a lot of good looks, a lot of chances. They kind of dominated. We got in the game a little better in the second. Then we gave up that goal 3-1. Then we just stopped defending.”

Evangelista gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 14:10 of the first period. Josi sent a wrist shot from the edge of the left face-off circle that hit Evangelista before going into the net.

Holtz tied it 1-1 at 17:17 of the second period when his one-timer from the point deflected off the stick of Predators forward Fedor Svechkov in the slot and under the left arm of Annunen before going into the net.

“I tried to get as much heat as possible on it,” Holtz said. “Then when I saw it got redirected, I thought it had a good chance of going in.”

Theodore put Vegas up 2-1 just 1:05 later at 18:22, burying a wrist shot from just above the right circle into the top left corner.

Pavel Dorofeyev extended the lead to 3-1 with his team-leading 20th goal at 5:52 of the third period. He finished a feed from Marner on a 2-on-1 rush with a snap shot from the left circle.

“I thought ‘Pav’ would be a good fit [for Marner to be paired with],” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I had them in my office and said, ‘Mitch, this is Pav tell him what you want, and where do you want him to go? Work together on the bench.’ So, they have.”

Stone made it 4-1 at 8:52. Jack Eichel created a 2-on-1 rush by skating around Predators forward Jonathan Marchessault in the neutral zone, and then passed to Stone at the left post, where he beat Annunen with a wrist shot.

Stone has 18 points (10 goals, eight assists) during his streak.

“It’s been awesome to see what he’s been able to do night in and night out,” Kolesar said. “I’m looking forward to it for the rest of the year.”

Reinhardt pushed the lead to 5-1 with a wrist shot from the slot at 12:26, and Marner made it 6-1 50 seconds later at 13:16.

Kolesar gave Vegas a 7-1 advantage at 15:12. Tomas Hertl found Kolesar alone in the front of the net, where he went forehand-backhand to tuck the puck around Annunen's right pad.

Forsberg scored a power-play goal at 19:38 for the 7-2 final.

“There’s a certain way we have to play,” Josi said. “Even if you’re down a goal or two, that doesn’t mean you have to change the game. I felt like we did that. I felt like we started doing things that are not normal for us, not normal for our game, and they made us pay.”

NOTES: Stone tied Hertl (11 games in 2024-25) for the second-longest point streak in franchise history behind Eichel (12 games in 2023-24). ... Eichel extended his point streak to eight games (15 points; five goals, 10 assists). ... Theodore played his 600th NHL game. ... Marchessault played in his first game since Dec. 17, missing the previous 14 games with a lower-body injury. He was minus-3 and had one shot on goal in 13:38 of ice time. ... Predators forward Ryan O'Reilly became the second member of the 2009 NHL Draft class to skate in 1,200 games, joining John Tavares (1,232 games).