Golden Knights hang on to outlast Blues and end losing streak

It was a much-needed performance from the Vegas Golden Knights as they took down the St. Louis Blues 4-2 on Thursday night at the Enterprise Center to earn their first victory since January 12.

The squad immediately received the start that they needed, setting the tone with a score just 19 seconds into the opening period. Mark Stone, who delivered his 13th of the year, made a great defensive play to force the turnover and quickly cash in the goal.

It was Stone's first goal in five games, helping him to prevent a new season-high of six consecutive games without a goal.

Vegas continued to apply early pressure as Victor Olofsson added a score of his own to make it 2-0 just about nine minutes into the period.

The 29-year-old took advantage of a beautiful feed from Ivan Barbashev, who picked up his 16th assist of the year on the play. 

The Blues would manage, however, to get on the board in the frame as Jordan Kyrou connected for his 21st of the season to make it 2-1 heading into the second. 

Goalie Ilya Samsonov did a great job of keeping St. Louis out of the net in the second period, allowing Pavel Doroyev to extend the Vegas lead to 3-1 with his 21st goal. Samsonov saved 15 of 17 shots on the night as he improved to 11-6-1 and snapped a four-game losing streak of his own.

Dorofeyev, who has been the squad's most consistent goal scorer all season long, now holds a 4-goal lead over the team's second-highest scorer Tomas Hertl (17 scores).

The third and final period was quiet for the majority of the time before the Blues finally managed to chip away at the lead with a goal from Robert Thomas. The gap was closed to 3-2 with three and a half minutes remaining.

The Golden Knights, desperately needing to hang on and secure a badly needed win, fended off the final effort from St. Loius and even added an empty net goal thanks to Tomas Hertl in the final seconds.

Vegas walked away with the 4-2 victory and improved to 30-14-4. On the road, they are now 12-8-3.

With the victory, the squad also managed to temporarily leapfrog the Oilers and reclaim first place in the Pacific Division with 62 total points. Edmonton remains closely behind with 61.

They will be back at it again on Friday afternoon to finish off a quick road trip with the second game of a back-to-back in Dallas against the Stars. Dallas is currently 29-17-1 and sits in third place in the Central Division.

Puck drop is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. PT.