Golden Knights captain Mark Stone sparks historic comeback in return from injury

Mark Stone’s presence with the Vegas Golden Knights is felt even when he’s out of the lineup and forced to watch the game in street clothes.

He’s even more impactful when he puts on the pads and skates.

Stone had a goal and an assist in his return to the lineup as the Golden Knights took a commanding 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Final with a dramatic rally for a 5-3 win at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday night.

“I don’t like watching ever. I want to play every game,” he said after returning from a five-game absence because of a lower-body injury. “It’s been an unfortunate part of my career, sitting out. This time of year, it’s even harder.

”But when the guys are playing the way they’re playing, it makes it a little bit easier. I come to the rink with a smile on my face every day and it helps when we win. It’s great to be back around the guys and back on the bench.”

His teammates were even more happy to have their captain back, even though they went 4-1 in his absence.

“That’s just what he does,” forward William Karlsson said of Stone’s performance. “He’s been leading this team for a long time and he’s going to continue doing it.”

Stone helped key the first rally to win from a three-goal postseason deficit in franchise history.

He drove to the net on a power play just 19 seconds into the second period and got free on the back post for a tap-in goal on a brilliant find from Mitch Marner to help spark the rally.

“He had a couple great looks in the first then finds that little hole there for me to find him in the second,” Marner said. “It’s big to have (Stone) back and great to have him in the locker room. It’s huge.

“Obviously he does a lot for our team both off the ice and the ice with just his leadership and the intensity he brings, then how good he is when he’s out there just to break up plays and make those plays that not a lot of people can make in this league. It’s very impressive.”

Like with just under 12 minutes remaining in a tie game Sunday night when he took a pass from Kaedan Korczak just outside the blue line with his back turned to net and deftly touched it on to a streaking Tomas Hertl, who made a filthy move to the inside and fired the eventual game-winning goal past Scott Wedgewood.

“I could see him coming up the wing and he was flying, so I gave him the little bump,” Stone said. “I actually didn’t see the goal. Sorry, dude. I was changing and once I got to the bench, the guys went crazy and I got to see it on replay. It was a great play and it felt good.”

Knights coach John Tortorella didn’t need to cite the two points or the four hits or three shots on goal to measure the impact of his captain’s return.

“He’s such such an important guy before you even step on the ice, just to have that presence in the room. And he’s a pretty good player on the ice,” Tortorella said. “Scores a huge one on a pretty goal on the power play to get us at least back in the game. He’s such a big piece. He put in some big minutes and some big minutes in the third period for us at key times.”

It has been a process for Stone to get back to this point.

He left after playing just seven shifts and 4:24 of Game 3 in the second-round series against Anaheim. Stone briefly returned to the ice during a stoppage in play late in the first period, but showed frustration as he went back to the locker room.

The Knights lost the next game, but won the next four without Stone in the lineup.

He has been skating the last few days and decided he was good to go after being given clearance following an on-ice session at the team’s practice facility at City National Arena on Saturday.

“Just rehabbing the last however long its been,” Stone said. “Trying to push back makes it a lot easier when the team is playing the way they’re playing. I was inching closer, tried to buy a little bit more time and it felt like (Saturday) there was no reason to not jump back in there.

“Tonight, I felt great.”

Stone said he came out of the game feeling fine after playing nearly 16 minutes on Sunday night.

“Timing was a little off early and the lungs weren’t the greatest,” he said. “But the body felt good.”

The win will probably help the recovery process, too.