It was a night that forward Braeden Bowman will never forget, and one that the Vegas Golden Knights needed in the worst way.
On Saturday, the Golden Knights got the proverbial monkey off their back, breaking a four-game losing streak with a dominant 4-1 effort over the St. Louis Blues.
Needing something positive to go their way, the Golden Knights got off to an excellent start, with Brandon Saad picking up his first goal of the season. The play was set up by Brett Howden, who was able to keep the puck in the offensive zone with a turnover. Reilly Smith found Saad, and the former Blue was able to get revenge on his former club to get his new team rolling.
Two minutes later, Bowman had his moment in the sun. On their first power play of the game, the Golden Knights were able to strike quickly, with Pavel Dorofeyev finding Bowman right beside Blues goaltender Joel Hofer. The rookie fired it into the yawning cage to secure his first career NHL goal.
36 seconds into the second period, Noah Hanifin joined the fun. A slapshot from the point made its way through traffic and past Hofer to open up a 3-0 lead for the road team. It was significant for the Golden Knights’ defensive corps, with Shea Theodore and now Hanfiin scoring their first goals in back-to-back games.
After continuing to frustrate the Blues with back-to-back penalty kills, Tomas Hertl extended the lead on the breakaway. Hertl and Dorofeyev have continued to establish excellent chemistry, and the former now has goals in three straight games to show for his efforts.
St. Louis would break the shutout with just over four minutes remaining, as Blues defenseman Philip Broberg was finally able to crack Akira Schmid with a wrist shot from the blue line.
Outside of the late goal, Schmid was excellent in net, stopping 21 of 22 shots and rebounding nicely from his rough previous outing against the Islanders.
The Golden Knights now hope to keep the positive momentum going as they travel north to face the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.