Stone scores 1st goal for Golden Knights in rout of Canucks

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Mark Stone scored his first goal for Vegas and the Golden Knights easily skated past the Vancouver Canucks 6-2 on Saturday night for their sixth straight victory.

Paul Stastny, Alex Tuch, Tomas Nosek, Cody Eakin and Nate Schmidt also scored for the Golden Knights. Marc-Andre Fleury had 29 saves for his 34th win of the season and 438th of his career to move past Jacques Plante for eighth on the NHL’s all-time list.

The Canucks got goals from Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat, while Alex Biega tallied two assists. Jacob Markstrom stopped 11 of the 16 shots he faced before he was replaced by Thatcher Demko midway through the first period. Demko turned away 16 of 17 shots.

The Golden Knights have outscored their opponents 24-9 through their winning streak.

Vancouver got off to a disastrous start, allowing five goals in the game’s first 15 minutes. It was the fourth outing in a row during which the Canucks have been forced to battle back from an early multigoal deficit.

Stone opened the scoring 1:32 in, popping a backhanded shot past Markstrom from the slot for his first goal in a Golden Knights jersey. The 26-year-old right wing has also had two assists since Vegas acquired him from Ottawa at the trade deadline on Feb. 25.

Tuch made it 2-0 for the Knights less than four minutes later, tipping in a long shot from Jon Merrill after the Canucks failed to clear the puck.

At 7:33, Eakin forced a shot through heavy traffic, bouncing the puck off Vancouver’s Tanner Pearson and into the net to put Vegas up 3-0.

Nosek made it 4-0, tipping the puck in over Markstrom’s glove at 11:52. The Vancouver goalie was pulled at 14:17 after Stastny beat him through the five-hole.

The Canucks’ first real scoring chance of the night came just over 10 minutes in when Antoine Roussel stole the puck and went 2-on-1 with Elias Pettersson. Roussel sliced a cross-ice pass to the star rookie, whose blistering shot went off the post.

Less than a minute later, Boeser put Vancouver on the board, deflecting a long shot from Biega in past Fleury.

Horvat added a goal 3:56 into the second period with a hard wrist shot from the face-off dot that beat Fleury glove side. It was the center’s first point in six games.

Schmidt quieted hopes of any second-period comeback a minute later, ripping a shot from high in the slot. The puck bounced off the stick of Vancouver’s Josh Leivo and into the net, putting Vegas back up by four goals.

NOTES: Roussel assisted on Horvat’s goal, tallying his 30th point of the season and marking a career high. The 29-year-old left wing previously had 29 points for the Dallas Stars in both 2013-14 and 2015-16. … Jake Virtanen returned to the Canucks’ lineup. He missed 10 games after breaking two ribs in a collision with Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf on Feb. 13. … Vancouver has a single regulation win in its last 17 games.

UP NEXT

Golden Knights: will look to extend its winning streak when it faces the Flames in Calgary on Sunday.

Canucks: will host the New York Rangers on Wednesday.