Stone's OT goal lifts Golden Knights past Kings for 5th straight win

LOS ANGELES -- Mark Stone scored 25 seconds into overtime, and the Vegas Golden Knights extended their winning streak to five games with a 3-2 victory against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday.

Stone had an open net after Los Angeles goaltender Darcy Kuemper slid to his left to defend against Jack Eichel on the rush. Eichel fanned on his shot, recovered the puck and skated around the net to pass to Stone on the doorstep from below the goal line.

“Went for the shot, obviously got tripped, but the way he got up so fast to make the play, (I) just put it in the empty net. It’s a pretty easy goal,” said Stone, who also had an assist in extending his point streak to nine games (14 points; eight goals, six assists).

Eichel had three assists, Braeden Bowman and Mitch Marner also scored, and the Golden Knights (22-11-12) are 5-0-1 in their past six games. Akira Schmid made 22 saves.

“We’re playing well right now,” Stone said. “When your team’s playing well, everybody seems to start having some success. Obviously, power play’s clicking, pucks in and around the net. You get to the net, you’re going to get some chances, especially when you’re playing with Jack and Mitch.”

Brandt Clarke scored to tie the game with 1:27 remaining, and Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist for the Kings (19-16-11), who are 1-2-2 in their past five games. Kuemper made 24 saves.

“I think we’re doing the right things still,” Los Angeles forward Adrian Kempe said. “Pretty happy with the effort, the play in D-zone, neutral zone, the O-zone tonight, I think we did a pretty good job. Hard to say exactly what it is that’s not working, but clearly, yeah, something is not going right for us.”

Bowman put the Golden Knights up 1-0 at 3:56 of the second period, beating Kuemper over his left shoulder on a wrist shot from just outside the crease. Bowman, who had scored four goals in his first six NHL games in November, had not scored since Dec. 2, going 17 games without a goal.

“I mean, he’s around the front of the net,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That’s where he scored all his goals. He’s got good hands. Got courage, he’s willing to go there. … Good recognition by Jack. He seems to always have played well with Jack, and Jack makes people around him better. But he got him the puck in a good spot, and he finished.”

Fiala tied it 1-1 at 6:24 of the third period, scoring from low in the left circle on a rebound of Alex Turcotte's shot from the opposite side. Fiala has three multipoint games in his past eight since the start of January.

Marner put Vegas back in front 2-1 at 12:07 of the third, skating down the slot and into the right circle before going far side with a wrist shot.

“I kind of had a lot of time to decide what I was going to do, so at first there, I was deciding to maybe take a slap shot, maybe get a tip play," Marner said. "And then I saw both guys go to (Tomas) Hertl and (Ivan Barbashev), so kind of walked in and was lucky enough to pick my spot."

Clarke tied it 2-2 at 18:33 of the third when he crashed the net from the weak side and put in Kempe’s centering pass at the left post during 6-on-5 play.

“What I really liked about it, and what he does well, is he had the sense and the timing to arrive as the puck arrived, so it makes it much harder on the defending team,” Hiller said. “You just look and you say, ‘Hey, he’s standing there. It’s a backdoor goal. Nice goal.’ But there’s a lot of subtlety that goes into that, and we’re seeing that from him, I think, more and more.”

NOTES: Eichel extended his point streak to six games (10 points; four goals, six assists). He has been involved in an NHL-leading 13 game-winning goals. … Stone scored his 26th game-winning goal for the Golden Knights to break a tie with William Karlsson for second in franchise history. Jonathan Marchessault is first with 32 such goals. … Clarke has four points (one goal, three assists) during a three-game point streak. ... The Golden Knights and Kings have each played 18 games that have gone to overtime, the most in the NHL.