The Vegas Golden Knights and St. Louis Blues will square off Monday night at T-Mobile Arena in the first game of a home-and-home, which wraps up Wednesday night at Enterprise Center.
The Golden Knights have recorded back-to-back 4-1 wins, and they enter tonight’s contest with a chance to win three games in a row for the first time in a month.
The Golden Knights have returned to form since scoring two late goals against Edmonton to force overtime and steal a point. The last two games have been complete efforts, and the Golden Knights will look to continue that trend tonight against the Blues.
St. Louis is fifth in the Central Division with 25 points in 23 games and is coming off a 4-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes. A slow start and falling into a 3-0 hole ultimately proved to be too much for St. Louis to overcome, though the Blues played well in the second and third periods, outshooting the Coyotes 29-13.
This will be the first meeting between these teams this year (they will wrap up the season series March 25 at Enterprise Center). Historically, this matchup has seen a lot of wild games (often 5-4 or high-scoring games) that have featured exciting lead and momentum shifts (see Game #2 below). The Blues have scored at least three goals in six straight games against the Golden Knights.
Vegas is 13-9-1 in the all-time matchup and went 2-1-0 in last year’s season series.
2022-23 Season series recap
Game #1 (16 of 82): Vegas vs. St. Louis (3-2 STL)
Vegas took a 2-1 lead less than three minutes into the second period, but the Blues went on to score two goals (one by Ivan Barbashev) in the span of 40 seconds late in the frame, which ultimately was the difference in the game.
Game #2 (36 of 82): Vegas vs. St. Louis (5-4 VGK, SO)
This was a perfect example of a thrilling 5-4 game between the Golden Knights and Blues.
Alex Pietrangelo scored on the backhand against his former team to give Vegas an early lead.
The two clubs traded tallies in a five-goal second period, making it a 3-3 contest through 40 minutes. St. Louis took a 4-3 lead 10:45 into the third, but the Golden Knights knotted things up late with the extra attacker, as Chandler Stephenson netted the equalizer with just 1:36 remaining. It was part of a four-point night for Stephenson.
Mark Stone scored the game-winning goal in the shootout.
Game #3 (67 of 82): Vegas at St. Louis (5-3 VGK)
In yet another back-and-forth game, the Blues tied things up at 3-3 early in the third period. However, Vegas responded with a goal less than two minutes later, and Pietrangelo then added an empty-net goal with seven seconds remaining.
This game was significant for several reasons. For one thing, it marked Jiri Patera’s NHL debut. For another, Patera became the first goaltender drafted by the Golden Knights to appear in a game for Vegas; he made 30 saves for his first career win.
Also, this was the night of the memorable head-butt goal by Pavel Dorofeyev, which was the first of his career and turned out to be the game-winner (he also tallied an assist on William Karlsson’s 12th of the year, which came in Game 67; Karlsson already has 11 through 25 games this season).
Tonight’s matchup
Vegas Golden Knights
Overall record: 16-5-4
Last 10 games: 4-3-3
Home record: 9-2-1
Goals for: 3.16 (17th)
Goals against: 2.32 (2nd)
Power play: 21.4 percent (14th)
Penalty kill: 86.5 percent (5th)
Points leaders: Jack Eichel (10-17—27), Karlsson (11-12—23), Stone (7-14—21)
Goals leaders: Karlsson (11), Jonathan Marchessault (11), Eichel (10), Stone (7)
St. Louis Blues
Overall record: 12-10-1
Last 10 games: 5-5-0
Road record: 5-7-1
Goals for: 2.91 (23rd)
Goals against: 3.13 (t-15th)
Power play: 10.0 percent (31st)
Penalty kill: 79.3 percent (17th)
Points leaders: Robert Thomas (8-15—23), Pavel Buchnevich (8-10—18), Jordan Kyrou (4-11—15)
Goals leaders: Jake Neighbors (9), Thomas (8), Buchnevich (8), Brayden Schenn (8)
Coming in hot
Pavel Buchnevich (STL) — Buchnevich has been red-hot after getting off to a slow start that saw him tally three points in his first nine games. However, the Russian winger has 15 points in his last 12 games, including seven points in his last five.
Jack Eichel (VGK) — Eichel is coming off back-to-back three-point games and has been leading the charge during Vegas’ resurgence. He leads the Golden Knights in scoring with 27 points, has taken more shots than anyone on the team (103) and has a team-high four game-winning goals.
In the crease
Golden Knights
Logan Thompson — Record: 6-3-2 | GAA: 2.36 | SV%: .918 | SO: 0
Jiri Patera — Record (AHL): 6-6-2 | GAA: 3.17 | SV%: .900 | SO: 0
Thompson is expected to get the nod tonight with Adin Hill still day-to-day. He is 2-0-0 against St. Louis but gave up four goals in both starts for a combined 3.86 goals-against average and .830 save percentage. Thompson’s 5.03 goals saved above average is 12th overall among goalies with at least five starts, and he is ninth in goals saved above expected with 9.02, per Evolving Hockey. Patera should serve as Thompson’s backup, though he made 30 saves in a 5-3 win against the Blues last season in his NHL debut (he won both of his starts in 2022-23). Patera is 6-6-2 with a 3.17 goals-against average and .900 save percentage in 14 games with the Henderson Silver Knights this season.
Blues
Jordan Binnington — Record: 7-6-1 | GAA: 2.98 | SV%: .910 | SO: 1
Joel Hofer — Record: 5-4-0 | GAA: 3.04 | SV%: .901 | SO: 1
Binnington is 7-2-4 with a 3.04 goals-against average and .916 save percentage in the all-time matchup against Vegas. He played in all three games last year, going 1-1-1 with a 3.27 GAA and .898 SV%. Binnington has saved 4.35 goals above average this season, good for 16th overall among goalies with at least five starts, and has 4.76 goals saved above expected, which ranks 20th. Hofer has a GSAA of -0.98 and a GSAx of 0.31.
Keys to the game
Head start
Playing with the lead has been critical to the Golden Knights’ recent turnaround; doing so determines whether the Golden Knights chase or control a game, and it has enabled Vegas to dictate terms. “We’re a tough team when we play with the lead,” Stone said after the win against Washington Saturday night.
A strong start tonight will be significant against a Blues team that has consistently found itself trailing early. In fact, scoring first has been a game-deciding factor for the Blues this season; St. Louis has not lost (11-0-0) when lighting the lamp first but is 1-10-1 when giving up the first goal, with the sole win coming in the second game of the season, a 2-1 shootout win against the Kraken.
But St. Louis has consistently found itself trailing by multiple goals. In their 11 losses, the Blues have given up the first two goals nine times. The two exceptions were a 2-1 shootout loss to Dallas in the season opener and a 3-1 loss to the Wild last week in which Minnesota scored first, St. Louis tied it and then the Wild took a 2-1 lead and eventually won 3-1. Most recently, St. Louis gave up a goal 40 seconds into the first period against Arizona and trailed 3-0 by intermission.
The Golden Knights will need to be raring to go by puck drop against an opponent that will be looking to get out to an aggressive start. Executing early could give Vegas a massive advantage.
Carry on
There’s not much the Golden Knights want or need to change from the last two games. As Bruce Cassidy said the other night, there was a mindset shift in Edmonton, and this looks like a refreshed and reinvigorated Golden Knights squad. Their forecheck was particularly stellar in the second period against the Capitals, and their structure allowed them to hold both Vancouver and Washington to just 22 shots on goal. They’ve capitalized on chances, performed well on special teams and have had extended stretches in the offensive zone. Vegas will need more of the same tonight.
Projected lineups
Golden Knights
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Paul Cotter — William Karlsson — Jonathan Marchessault
Brett Howden — Chandler Stephenson — Michael Amadio
William Carrier — Nicolas Roy — Keegan Kolesar
Ben Hutton — Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb — Kaedan Korczak
Nicolas Hague — Zach Whitecloud
Logan Thompson
Jiri Patera
Blues
Pavel Buchnevich — Robert Thomas — Jake Neighbours
Kevin Hayes — Brayden Schenn — Jordan Kyrou
Brandon Saad — Oskar Sundqvist — Kasperi Kapanen
Alexei Toropchenko — Nikita Alexandrov — Sammy Blais
Nick Leddy — Colton Parayko
Torey Krug — Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella — Scott Perunovich
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
How to watch
Game 26: Golden Knights vs. Blues
When: 7 p.m. PT
Where: T-Mobile Arena — Las Vegas, NV
TV: Scripps
Radio: Fox Sports 98.9 FM
Statistics courtesy of NHL.com, Evolving Hockey and AHL.com.
(Photo of Chandler Stephenson and Torey Krug: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports)