Jonathan Marchessault scored twice, leading the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.
Keegan Kolesar, Reilly Smith, and Shea Theodore also scored for the Golden Knights, who have now won their first three games of the season. Adin Hill made 31 saves in his first start.
Justin Schultz and Jaden Schwartz scored in the third period for Seattle. Martin Jones made 19 saves through the first two periods, and Philip Grubauer stopped all five shots he faced in the third.
Kolesar opened the scoring just 12 seconds into the game. After the faceoff, William Carrier took the puck from Seattle defenseman Will Borgen and passed it to Kolesar, who scored from just beyond the top of the crease.
“That was a great turnover by Carrier. I missed similar chances in the last game in Chicago, and I wasn’t missing it this time,” said Kolesar, who played five seasons of junior hockey with the Seattle Thunderbirds. “This is a good start for us right now.”
With Seattle’s Alex Wennberg in the box for high sticking, Alex Pietrangelo sent a cross-ice pass from the right faceoff circle to Marchessault, who slapped it past Jones at 3:07 to make it 2-0.
Smith made it 3-0 on a power play with 6:05 left in the second period, sweeping in a pass from Chandler Stephenson for his first goal of the season.
Marchessault extended the lead to 4-0 with 2:49 remaining in the second, scoring his third goal of the season with a shot from the right side.
Theodore, Kolesar’s former Thunderbirds teammate, drilled a shot from the high slot with 16.5 seconds left in the period, making it 5-0.
“I think it’s good for the guys to get a taste of success early – everyone is chasing that early in the year, and we don’t want to be behind,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought we started well tonight, which is something we addressed. Our starts in L.A. and at home against Chicago weren’t great. They weren’t bad, but when you can put the other team on their heels, that always helps.”
The Kraken avoided a shutout when Schultz scored with 6:41 left in the game. Schwartz, playing in his 600th NHL game, added another goal with 3:43 to go.
“From the start, we were stuck in quicksand for the first 10 minutes of this game – we couldn’t get our feet going,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Once we steadied our game, we didn’t execute with the puck. We’re looking at the number of opportunities we gave them in transition right off our tape. They killed us on transition, especially in the second period.”
NOT THE FASTEST
The goal at the 12-second mark did not set a record for either team. The Vegas record for the fastest goal was by William Karlsson at 10 seconds against Colorado on April 29, 2021. The fastest goal allowed by Seattle was on Feb. 21, when Tyler Motte scored 11 seconds into the Canucks’ 5-2 win.
NEVER AS EASY AS IT LOOKS
Vegas had a chance to make it 3-0 at the 4:37 mark of the second period when Chandler Stephenson was awarded a penalty shot after being hooked by Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn. However, Jones made a stick save on Stephenson’s wrister.
HOME WOES
The Kraken lost their second straight home opener. Their first home game last season was a 4-2 loss to Vancouver.
UP NEXT
- Golden Knights: At Calgary on Tuesday night.
- Kraken: Host Carolina on Monday night.