Golden Knights Paul Stastny ends goal drought in San Jose win | Golden Knights

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Peter Stastny is a little more difficult to please than the average hockey dad, which is what happens when you’re a Hall of Famer and pioneer for Eastern European players in the NHL.

Paul Stastny no doubt made his father proud Sunday.

The Golden Knights center opened the scoring in a 3-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks for his first goal in 12 games while his dad looked on at SAP Center as part of the annual Fathers Trip.

“It’s nice. He’ll be off my back for a couple hours, so that’s good. Happy flight, I think,” Paul Stastny said with a laugh. “More than anything, I think he’ll be more happy that we just won. That’s all he cares about.

“Obviously him being a player and being his son, I think the most important thing is he wants us to win and if I contribute, then that’s good. The two points will be the best thing that he could ask for and then he’ll want two more (Monday against Colorado).”

First goal since Nov. 27

Stastny hadn’t scored since Nov. 27 at Nashville when he put away the winner in overtime to help ignite the Knights’ current 9-2-2 run.

But he combined with linemates Alex Tuch and Valentin Zykov for his ninth goal with 2:29 remaining in the second period.

After Stastny’s dumped the puck below the goal line to activate Zykov on the forecheck, the center was left alone in the slot and put Alex Tuch’s pass top shelf against Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell. The assist was Tuch’s 100th career point.

“Stas scores a big goal, and obviously it was a good forechecking play,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “Tuchy and Zykov went in there and forechecked and coughed the puck up, and he made a great shot. It was good to see him get on the board, for sure.”

Stastny, who turns 34 on Friday, is on pace for the lowest point total of his career and has seen his ice time suffer, as a result.

Demoted to third line

When Gallant had to shuffle the deck following the injury to Cody Glass on Dec. 8, he dropped Stastny to the third line in favor of newly acquired Chandler Stephenson.

“When the team’s doing well and you can help contribute, that’s the most important thing,” Stastny said. “I’ve never just looked at numbers. I want to be looked upon every time I’m out there and try to play a consistent game. Sometimes the stats show support and sometimes they don’t, which is frustrating.

“But that’s part of being in this league this long is you got to keep battling through those ups and downs, keep finding ways to stay positive, keep finding ways to work because no one’s going to feel bad for you.”

Stastny is the team’s third-highest paid forward with a $6.5 million salary cap hit but has 15 points in 39 games. Forty percent of that production came in a three-game stretch during October when he accounted for three goals and three assists.

Despite skating for much of the season between Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone, the team’s leading point producers, Stastny has two assists in his past 28 games.

But his 55.6 shot attempts percentage at 5-on-5 is tops among all Knights forwards excluding Nicolas Roy, a sign that Stastny is finding other ways to contribute.

“If they go in, they go in. If they don’t, they don’t. It’s about getting chances and it seems sometimes the easy ones don’t go in and the hard ones do,” Stastny said. “You want to do everything you can, and on different nights different guys have stepped up. It was nice to get the first goal of the game, which really kind of lets us open up the play and ease up a little bit.”

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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.