• Who: Penguins (24-30-10) vs. Golden Knights (37-18-6)
• What: NHL regular season, Game 65
• When: 10:08 p.m. Eastern
• Where: T-Mobile Arena
• Goaltenders: Alex Nedeljkovic (12-13-5, .892 SV%) vs. Ilya Samsonov (14-8-2, .887 SV%)
• TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh
• Radio: Penguins Radio Network
• Streaming: SNP360, ESPN+ (out-of-market)
• Boxscore: NHL.com
• Media notes: Penguins | Golden Knights

► FOLLOW ALONG

• That's that, 4-0 Golden Knights is the final. Onto Minnesota.

• Nice play by Tommy Novak to force a turnover along the boards and take the puck to the net, but he fires it wide.

• Another game where the Penguins were the better team in the first, had nothing to show for it, then fell apart afterward. Feels like there's been a lot of those.

• GOAL: A quick one follows. Mark Stone drives to the net, tucks the puck past Alex Nedeljkovic's pad. Golden Knights 4, Penguins 0

• GOAL: Brandon Saad makes it 3-0. Soft wrister from the right circle gets over Alex Nedeljkovic's blocker. Golden Knights 3, Penguins 0

• Second pairing remains Matt Grzelcyk and Erik Karlsson. Ryan Shea is on the third pairing with Ryan Graves.

• Vladislav Kolyachonok and Kris Letang are on a pairing to start the third.

• Third period is underway.

• Bryan Rust is back for the start of the third.

• End of the second. Golden Knights lead, 2-0. Penguins have an 18-15 lead in shots.

• It's sequences like that one that make the people who call Bryan Rust "soft" look just totally insane. They see they missed games count then it's like they aren't capable of remembering what leads to those missed games. That was warrior stuff. When he misses games, it's because of the way he plays. 

• Bryan Rust is going down the tunnel. Tried staying on the bench, couldn't.

• Bryan Rust is hobbled by a big blocked shot. Got him in the foot. Tried to skate off and fell, couldn't get off the ice, so he's staying out there and finishing his shift. Clearly in a ton of pain. 

• Golden Knights are outshooting the Penguins 8-7 this frame.

• GOAL: Golden Knights double the lead. Ivan Barbashev skated up the left wing and puts a wrister past Alex Nedejkovic. Golden Knights have the first three shots of this period. Golden Knights 2, Penguins 0

• Second period is underway.

• Bryan Rust had four of the Penguins' nine first-period shots

• End of the first. Golden Knights lead, 1-0. Tanner Pearson with the goal. Penguins led 9-6 in shots. They'll have 10 seconds to kill on the Kris Letang penalty to open the second.

• Penguins with their third penalty of the period. Kris Letang sits for two for hooking with 1:50 left in the first.

• GOAL: Tanner Pearson opens the scoring with 7:01 left. Bodies in the crease, first shot hit Vladislav Kolyachonok, Mark Stone picks up the loose puck and gets it over to Pearson in the slot. Golden Knights 1, Penguins 0

• Penguins kill the penalty. Golden Knights had two shots in those two minutes.

• Took about 7:40, but the Golden Knights get their first shot on the power play. Alex Nedeljkovic makes the save.

• Random note: Alex Nedeljkovic was calling Ryan Shea "Bobby Shea" the other day in a reference to Bobby Orr after he got a couple of goals.

• Penguins back on the PK. Ryan Shea sits for two for high-sticking with 12:42 left.

• Five minutes in and the Penguins have the game's only five shots. Great start here. Good chances, too.

• Penguins kill the penalty. Golden Knights still looking for their first shot of the game.

• Evgeni Malkin gets called for a trip 58 seconds into the game. Penguins to the PK early. It's Malkin's 1,200th game, by the way.

• Penguins get two quick shots to open the game.

• We are underway from Vegas

• Golden Knights' lines and pairings:

Tanner Pearson - Jack Eichel - Mark Stone
Brandon Saad - Tomas Hertl - Pavel Dorofeyev
Ivan Barbashev - Brett Howden - Keegan Kolesar
Reilly Smith - Nicolas Roy - Cole Schwindt

Nicolas Hague - Alex Pietrangelo
Noah Hanifin - Zach Whitecloud
Brayden McNabb - Kaedan Korczak

• The place has filled out now since warmups. Reilly Smith was in the pregame hype video and the place erupted. Not hard to see why he loved it here so much. One of the best atmospheres in the league, and they love him here.

• Just an aside, I always found Reilly Smith fine to deal with and he seemed to get along fine with everyone when he was in Pittsburgh. Even was great for his first couple weeks with the Penguins. Just fell off. 

• Penguins' lines and pairings. No extras, the new guy aren't here yet. Interesting second line, to say the least.

Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Kevin Hayes - Evgeni Malkin - Emil Bemstrom
Danton Heinen - Tommy Novak - Phil Tomasino
Boko Imama - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari

Ryan Shea - Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk - Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves - Vladislav Kolyachonok

• Big ovation for Reilly Smith when he's shown on the videoboard in warmups. It's his first game back since being re-acquired on Wednesday. Really popular guy here, original "misfit." Seeing some "welcome back" posters in the crowd.

• Well, all six defensemen are out there. Jack St. Ivany doesn't appear to here. So, no idea what's going on there. They can't use an emergency recall just to have him as an extra.

 In case you missed it below, Jack St. Ivany was recalled on an emergency basis, which means one of the Penguins' six defensemen is either ill or injured (or at least questionable). It's not yet clear who. The Penguins only had an optional skate, and the only defensemen to skate were Ryan Shea, Ryan Graves and Vladislav Kolyachonok. I did see Kolyachonok an hour or so ago outside the locker room preparing for the game.