Braeden Bowman scored his first NHL goal as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Saturday night.
Brandon Saad and Noah Hanifin each scored their first goal of the season for the Golden Knights. Tomas Hertl also scored as Vegas snapped its four-game winless streak (0-2-2).
Reilly Smith and Pavel Dorofeyev earned two assists apiece for Vegas nd Akira Schmid made 23 saves.
Philip Broberg scored and Joel Hofer made 29 saves for the Blues, who are 3-7-4 in their last 14 games.
The Golden Knights outshot St. Louis 33-24 and dominated much of the game.
The Blues’ fourth forward line generated the team’s best scoring chance during the first period. Schmid stopped Alexey Toropchenko’s shot on a 2-on-1 rush and denied Nathan Walker on a wraparound bid.
Then the Golden Knights took control. Saad capitalized on Matthew Kessel’s turnover in front of the Blues net to put Vegas up 1-0 with 7:08 left in the first period.
The Golden Knights doubled their lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal with 5:02 left in the period. Cross-ice passes by Jack Eichel and Dorofeyev set up Bowman for a back-door tap-in.
Just 36 seconds into the second period, Vegas increased its margin to 3-0 with Hanifin’s slap shot from the right point through Brett Howden’s screen in front of Hofer.
The Blues stepped up their play late in the second period, with defensemen Cam Fowler, Justin Faulk and Tyler Tucker putting dangerous shots toward the goal.
But they couldn’t break through, then they had to hang on while Vegas finished the second period with a four-minute power play.
The Blues killed those penalties, but they couldn’t capitalize on their own power plays in the third period.
Dorofeyev sprung Hertl for his breakaway goal that made it 4-0, then Broberg put a shot through traffic to end Schmid’s shutout bid.
