Golden Knights Drive By Panthers

     The Vegas Golden Knights cruised by the Florida Panthers 5-3 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night. The Panthers are now 2-2-0 on their west coast road trip and will next play on Tuesday in Arizona against the Coyotes.
     Players from the 1980 United States Olympic goal medal team, who celebrated the 40th anniversary to the day of their victory over the Soviet Union, were honored with a ceremonial pregame faceoff. Gage Quinney, the first native-born player from Nevada, made his NHL debut for Vegas.
     It took just 3:28 into the contest for Florida(32-24-6) to go ahead 1-0. Mike Hoffman put in his 24th goal of the season.
     Vegas(33-22-8) tied it up 1-1 with 8:08 left in the first period. Tomas Nosek was able to get his seventh goal of the year.
     In the second period, the Panthers regained the lead while on the power play. Evgenii Dadonov scored his 25th goal of the season on assists from Aleksander Barkov and Keith Yandle.
     The rest of the frame belonged to the Golden Knights. William Carrier added his seventh with 7:21 remaining and Max Pacioretty compiled his 29th goal with 52 seconds to go.
     Former Panther Reilly Smith made it a two-goal margin 19 seconds into the third period. Jonathan Marchessault and Paul Stastny added assists on the play.
     The Cats cut it to 4-3 at the 5:11 mark. Aleksi Saarela scored for the second time in the last three games with the club.
     The contest was capped by Vegas with 1:17 left in the third. Smith chalked up his second goal of the game and 25th goal of the season with an empty-net tally.