Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone (61) celebrates after scoring against San Jose in the third period of their game at T-Mobile Arena, Monday, March 15, 2021. The Golden Knights beat the Sharks 2-1.
Monday, March 15, 2021 | 11:03 p.m.
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There may not be a more dynamic pair of teammates right now in the NHL than Vegas’ Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty.
Stone and Pacioretty each had a goal and an assist in Monday’s a 2-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at T-Mobile Arena, continuing their hot streak in March as Stone leads the league with 16 points for the month and Pacioretty is second with 14.
They’ve combined to score the last five Vegas goals against a goalie.
“I don’t know, chemistry?” Stone said what makes him and Pacioretty click. “It just works. I really don’t have much to explain it.”
The Stone-Pacioretty duo has been a mainstay for the Golden Knights basically since Stone arrived in Vegas, but this season they’re taking it to a new level. Stone has assisted on nine of Pacioretty’s 14 goals and Pacioretty has assisted on seven of Stone’s 10.
Stone has 33 points in 25 games and Pacioretty has 27 in 26 games. Neither has produced at a point-per-game pace in their careers, but at the current rate Stone would finish an 82-game season with 108 points and Pacioretty would have 85.
“It’s a credit to the players we’re playing with — we’re playing with some really good players,” Pacioretty said. “(Stone) and I have enjoyed playing together, but we’ve also played with some great guys in the middle.”
Pacioretty’s right that they’re not exactly playing with an AHL forward between them, but it’s clear who the driving forces of the line are.
Since Stone was traded to Vegas in February of 2019, he and Pacioretty have rarely strayed from each other, even as their centers come and go. They’ve spent extended time with Paul Stastny, William Karlsson and Cody Glass, but have the most success with Chandler Stephenson.
They showed though, that even with Stephenson out like he was Monday, it doesn’t matter who their center is. Glass filled in, but the way Stone and Pacioretty have been playing lately they could have plucked someone from the season-high crowd of 3,473 to fill out their line and they would have done just fine.
“I think a lot of times lines are made around two guys and there’s usually an interchangeable piece there,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “For sure, Stone and (Pacioretty) have some chemistry and they complement each other.”
Pacioretty scored first, his team-best 14th of the season and team-best fourth on the power play. It was the bright spot of an otherwise-poor first period where the Sharks controlled play to the tune of a 26-14 edge in shot attempts.
Vegas turned on the jets in the second period, flipping the script and out-attempting San Jose 31-9 in the frame. It was either team’s best period of the game, so naturally it was the only one without a goal.
Stone then added a much-needed insurance goal 62 seconds into the third, ripping home a one-timer after Pacioretty muscled his way through the defense and back-handed him the puck.
That held up has the game-winner after Timo Meier put the Sharks on the board with 5:31 remaining in the third. It was Stone’s sixth game-winning goal of the season, tied for a career-high.
“Obviously tonight wasn’t a Picasso,” Stone said. “We had a bit of a soft start but we were able to buckle down and get things
Stone and Pacioretty were the artists of another victory for the Golden Knights, and you can critique the finer points of the game all you want, but there’s no denying the work as a whole was a success.
So in a way, it kind of was like a Picasso.
