Subban makes 37 saves in Golden Knights win against Sharks

SAN JOSE --Malcolm Subban made 37 saves, including 20 in the third period, for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Sunday.

"He's been excellent, (and) he played real strong tonight," Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. "Both goaltenders were excellent in the hockey game; a 3-1 game could have been 7-5. Malcolm has been real strong for us."
Shea Theodore scored the go-ahead goal in the third period for the Golden Knights (20-13-6), who are 4-0-1 in their past five games.
WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Sharks highlights]
Aaron Dell made 34 saves for the Sharks (16-20-2), who have lost three games in a row and nine of 10 (1-8-1) heading into the Christmas break. San Jose was coming off a 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
"It's another one of those games we were in it, tied it up, and I thought positive things were going to come out of it," Sharks associate coach Roy Sommer said. "And you're waiting for the other shoe to fall, and sure enough, that's what happened."
Theodore scored with a wrist shot from the right face-off dot to give Vegas a 2-1 lead at 8:05.
"It was a great pass by [William Karlsson] on the play," Theodore said. "It's good to see them go in."
Jonathan Marchessault scored from the slot off a pass from Reilly Smith at 16:35 to make it 3-1, and the Golden Knights killed a slashing minor against Chandler Stephenson at 17:44.
"These are important games," Subban said. "When it comes down to playoff time, these will be all tight games."

Logan Couture tied the game 1-1 for San Jose at 3:54 of the third. Brent Burns skated the puck around the Vegas net and passed through the crease to Couture, who scored from a sharp angle to the right of the net.
"We're not finding ways to get out of losing streaks," Couture said. "Good teams stop those skids after two or three. They don't extend them to five or six. Unfortunately, that's where we've found ourselves a lot this year."
Burns extended his point streak to three games (one goal, three assists).
Paul Stastny gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead when he scored from the slot at 17:31 of the second period. Alex Tuch had the primary assist for his 100th NHL point.
Each team was 0-for-3 on the power play.

They said it

"It's nice. He'll be off my back for a couple of hours. That's good. A happy flight. More than anything, he'll just be happy that we won. That's all he cares about." -- Golden Knights center Paul Stastny on scoring a goal with his father, Hockey Hall of Famer Peter Stastny, in attendance for Vegas' dads trip
"We're a veteran team. I'd understand if we were dressing 10-12 rookies, but you can count the number of rookies on this team on one hand. ... It is our veterans, not our young guys, who are making mistakes." -- Sharks captain Logan Couture on their slide

Need to know

The Golden Knights went 3-0-1 against the Sharks this season. ... Theodore extended his point streak to five games (two goals, six assists). ... Vegas forward Mark Stone had his six-game point streak end (two goals, eight assists). It included four multipoint games. ... Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty also had a six-game point streak end (five goals, five assists). ... Sharks forward Tomas Hertl extended his point streak to six games with an assist on Couture's goal (four goals, three assists). ... San Jose defenseman Erik Karlsson had his point streak end at three games (three assists).

What's next

Golden Knights: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Monday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN, ATTSN-RM, ALT, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Friday (10 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, NBCSCA, FS-W, NHL.TV)