DeBoer gets 500th NHL win, Golden Knights defeat Sharks

Peter DeBoer got his 500th NHL win when the Vegas Golden Knights defeated his former team, the San Jose Sharks, 3-1 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

"When I reflect back on the 500th win, what I'm going to like the most was that it was a Pete DeBoer type game," DeBoer said. "We didn't give them a lot, I thought we smothered them. Defensively, we were really solid. We looked dangerous all night. ... That's the nice thing about tonight. I really liked how we played."
Reilly Smith scored twice for the Golden Knights (30-20-4), and Robin Lehner made 16 saves for his 20th win of the season after missing five games with an upper-body injury.
"We do have a lot of success against them (18-1-3), but I think it's just a coincidence," Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault said. "We're ready against them. We had a rivalry against them the first few years and it kind of wore off. I think it's just that we're confident and we know how to play against them. They're in a situation where they're not as offensively gifted as they were the first few years of our existence. We're just cashing in and playing the right way."
Noah Gregor scored for the Sharks (24-24-6), who have lost five of six. Zach Sawchenko made 18 saves in relief of James Reimer, who did not start the second period because of a lower-body injury. Reimer, making his 13th straight start, allowed one goal on 11 shots.
"All our guys looked tired tonight," San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. "No excuses, but we've played a lot of games over a short amount of days. It's been a grind. We weren't heavy and hard enough. ... I don't think it was a lack of effort. I just think there was no juice in the tank."

Keegan Kolesar gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 2:16 of the first period after Brett Howden set him up with a cross-ice pass.
"We had a lot of time with the puck in the O-zone," Smith said. "We probably didn't create [as much] offense as we would have liked to. But when we're able to have a lot of puck possession and have our [defense] moving, it opens up a lot of space. So that's something that we need to continue to work on."
Gregor tied it 1-1 at 1:53 of the second period. Andrew Cogliano passed from behind the goal line in the left corner to Nick Bonino, who flubbed his shot from the slot, but the puck went to Gregor on the right for a shot into an open net.
"The only [positive] thing I'd say was that we found a way to keep it a one-goal game for a long time," Boughner said. "That's an opportunity on the road no matter how you're playing. You can come up with 10 good minutes and find a way to win, but we couldn't really muster anything up tonight."

Smith made it 2-1 at 13:56, scoring from between the circles after a pass from Marchessault on the right.
"I think it's disappointing we didn't take away what they are good at," Cogliano said. "We didn't stay above them in the neutral zone. We didn't execute. ... We know the game plan against these guys is to take away the rush. For whatever reason, we didn't do that."
Smith increased the lead 3-1 at 4:45 of the third period off a touch pass from William Karlsson.
"I thought all of our lines played great today, but that line, Smith put two in the net," Lehner said. "We all need to get it going here and string some wins together. We need everyone to keep getting ready for that push down the road here."
NOTES:DeBoer is 500-368-119 in 987 NHL games in 15 seasons with the Golden Knights, Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils and Sharks. He is 85-39-8 in three seasons with Vegas, and was 198-129-34 in five seasons with the Sharks (2015-20). ... Sawchenko is 0-1-0 in three NHL relief appearances. … Lehner has had at least 20 wins in an NHL season three times. … The Sharks were held to 17 shots on goal two games after they had a season-low 16 shots Saturday against the Boston Bruins in a 3-1 loss. … Cogliano played 13:00 after missing two games for personal reasons.