Golden Knights pour it on Predators, earn 7th straight victory

The Vegas Golden Knights did everything right in the first period, except find an answer for Nashville Predators goaltender Justus Annunen.

But the Knights felt that if they were able to keep the pressure on, they’d eventually break through.

That they did, and then some, to the tune of seven unanswered goals and the Knights won their seventh straight game 7-2 over the Predators at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night.

The Knights (24-11-12) caught the Predators (23-21-4) on the second night of a back-to-back after an emotional 7-3 win over league-leading Colorado on Friday.

They put 15 shots on Annunen through 20 minutes, but couldn’t find the answer.

Nashville did, though. Forward Luke Evangelista tipped a shot from Nashville captain Roman Josi with 5:50 left in the first for a 1-0 lead.

Knights coach Bruce Cassidy told the team during the intermission that he liked what they brought. They just had to do it again.

“I feel like we had better energy than them, and that was probably the case,” Cassidy said. “When you play Colorado, you’ve got to work. You’ve got to skate. I thought we did some good things offensively, minus the traffic in front.”

It took until under three minutes were left in the second period before the Knights broke through. Alexander Holtz’s point shot deflected in, and Shea Theodore’s wrist shot 65 seconds later gave the Knights a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.

The Knights tacked on five more goals in a span of 9:20 during the third period.

Captain Mark Stone scored to extend his point streak to a career-best 11 games, and Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist for his fifth multipoint game in his last seven.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored his team-leading 20th goal, and his third in two games, and Keegan Kolesar and Cole Reinhardt had a goal and an assist each.

“We just started getting pucks and bodies to the net, either with screens like Shea’s goal, or just secondary opportunities,” Kolesar said. “We were trying to outnumber them and we were able to cash in quite a few goals.

Goaltender Akira Schmid made 27 saves and had an assist for his fourth straight win.

Theodore added an assist and was a plus-3 in his 600th NHL game. The Original Misfit, who has played 547 of those games with the Knights, has five points in five games since returning to the lineup Jan. 10 from an upper-body injury.

It’s the third time the Knights have won seven straight games under Cassidy, and the first time since they started 7-0 in the 2023-24 season.

The Knights have outscored opponents 36-19 during the streak.

“It feels like we’re turning a corner right now, and a lot of that is because the puck is going in the net,” Cassidy said.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.