Golden Knights score 5 in 1st period, cruise past Sharks

LAS VEGAS – The Vegas Golden Knights scored five goals in the first period and cruised to a 7-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

Mitch Marner had two goals and was one of 13 skaters to register at least a point for the Golden Knights (17-8-10), who broke a three-game losing streak (0-2-1). Carter Hart made 21 saves for his 100th career NHL victory.

“Honestly, to be up 5-0 after one period is rare,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You need everything to go right on both sides of the puck. That’s what I was as much pleased about is when it got to 2-0, maybe 3-0, we didn’t change the way we played. We didn’t give up much that first period, if anything.”

Macklin Celebrini and Collin Graf scored, and Tyler Toffoli had two assists for the Sharks (17-17-3), who have lost three straight. Yaroslav Askarov allowed four goals on 16 shots before being pulled at 14:57 of the first period. Alex Nedeljkovic made seven saves in relief.

“It wasn’t our night tonight,” Toffoli said. “'Asky' kept us in there as long as he could, but it felt like they had all the momentum and we had no pushback.”

Brett Howden gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 1:46 of the first period. Reilly Smith sprung the chance with a lead pass into the neutral zone, setting up a 2-on-1 rush that ended with Braeden Bowman finding Howden to bury the snap shot.

Marner extended it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 9:07 when his wrist shot from the left face-off dot hit off the skate of Sharks forward Alexander Wennberg in front and over the glove of Askarov.

“A little bit of a lucky bounce,” Marner said.

Colton Sissons made it 3-0 at 11:37. He and forward Keegan Kolesar broke out on a 2-on-1 on the rush, with Kolesar passing the puck to Sissons at the far post.

“We were able to transition pretty quickly and get some breaks off the rush,” Sissons said. “'Koley' made a great play and found me an easy one on the backdoor, which hasn’t been coming all too easy this year, so I’ll take it.”

Tomas Hertl roofed a snap shot at 14:57, making it 4-0 to chase Askarov out of the game. Sharks forward Ty Dellandrea turned the puck over to Pavel Dorofeyev, who found Hertl at the net front.

Mark Stone went forehand to backhand and off the left post to make it 5-0 at 18:34.

Celebrini gave the Sharks their first goal at 6:49 of the second period, ripping home his 19th goal of the season with a snap shot off the crossbar and underneath Hart’s right arm.

Smith scored with a slap shot, getting the puck from Korczak off the face-off win, to make it 6-1 at 18:50.

Marner scored his second of the game at 5:22 of the third period, tapping a Stone lead pass into the net to make it 7-1.

“Great play by both the wingers,” Marner said. “[Ivan Barbashev] winning a board battle, going up the ice and making a great play to ‘Stoney,’ who hit me backdoor.”

Graf deflected in a Toffoli rebound at 8:04 for the 7-2 final.

“We’re .500 [37 games in], and that’s probably how we played,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “There’s moments [that are] in the right direction. It feels like we take two steps forward, one step back.”

NOTES: Celebrini upped his point streak to six games (12 points; four goals, eight assists) and tied Sidney Crosby (55 in 2006-07) for the NHL’s most points by a teenager entering the holiday break. … The Golden Knights scored five goals in the first period for the third time in franchise history. The last time was Feb. 27 against the Blackhawks. … Vegas extended its point streak against the Sharks to 12 games, which is tied for the third-longest run against a single franchise.