Stone’s 5 assists power Golden Knights to first win in front of home crowd

By Justin Emerson

Monday, March 1, 2021 | 10:30 p.m.

Mark Stone was fired up after Monday’s game. He nearly sprinted out of the tunnel, pumping his fist and his stick and saluting the first home crowd of the season while being announced as the game’s first star.

Stone played all game with the passion he displayed after it. The Golden Knights captain had five assists, all primary, and helped every Vegas goal in a 5-4 comeback win in overtime against the Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena.

“I felt like I made some good plays tonight,” Stone said. “All the goals, guys are getting into good spots and I’m just laying it for them to make the plays.”

It was the fourth five-point night of Stone’s career and the first time he had five assists. He is the second player this season with five or more assists in a game, joining last season’s MVP, Leon Draisaitl of the Oilers.

Five points is a feat for anyone, but Stone has been so locked in this season it almost doesn’t feel like a surprise. He assisted Cody Glass and Max Pacioretty on the power play in the second period, assisted Nicolas Hague’s slapshot bomb in the third, and assisted Alex Tuch’s game-tying goal with 41.6 seconds left in regulation.

Then he finished his night at the office, stealing the puck at the defensive blue line and going the other way, splitting wide and setting up Pacioretty for his second goal of the night and second overtime goal of the season.

“That’s not a lucky night for our captain. He generates the offense on our team,” Pacioretty said. “That’s a big night for him and a big night for our team and he definitely led the way for us.”

The irony is that coach Pete DeBoer told Stone Monday morning at practice that he should shoot more — though he doesn’t seem too upset about his player's output.

“Not many guys in the world can put on a show like that,” DeBoer said.

Stone is as expressive as they come while on the ice, but he’s often much more stoic by the time he talks to the media. On Monday, though, he was more emotional in his press conference than normal and it’s easy to understand why.

T-Mobile Arena hosted fans for the first time this season, as 2,605 were in attendance for one of the more thrilling games of the season. Players took the ice for warmups with their sticks raised in salute to the fans, then ended the game with the customary stick-taps at center ice, the first time in almost a year they’ve been able to do that.

“I’m speechless. Our fans are by far the best in pro sports. This arena is the best arena in sports because they bring it no matter what,” Stone said. “I love coming to the rink and playing hard for these fans.”

Tuch said it hit him during the anthem that fans were back, hearing the “Knight!” chant and joking he’s glad it wasn’t just teammates Ryan Reaves and William Carrier yelling it.

There were times throughout the game that the spontaneity of crowd chants was a refreshing break from the artificial crowd noise. “Go Knights Go” chants broke out at times, as did the “Fleury, Fleury” chants after the Vegas goalie made a pair of big saves.

“It was limited capacity but it fell like a full building,” Tuch said. “We knew they were going to be with us all night and it was going to be really exciting.”

It wasn’t just any game either. It was also for first place in the West Division, as a loss would have dropped Vegas behind the Wild atop the division. These aren’t the old Wild, the defensive-first team that suffocated the life out of the Golden Knights the first three seasons — Vegas was 2-4-0 all-time coming into Monday.

These Wild have firepower, answering both of Vegas’ power-play goals in the second period with a pair of their own, and keeping Vegas without a shot in the third period until the 11:35 mark. For all the talk of the future playoff series between the Golden Knights and Avalanche, the Wild were 41.6 seconds away from first place.

Instead, Stone turned in one of the games of his life to help Golden Knights solidify their hold on the top spot in the division.

“That was a heavyweight tilt,” Stone said. “To come back like that is a big momentum swing for us. Shows a lot of guts by everybody.”