In Seattle, Jonathan Marchessault hit for a double on Saturday night, and the Vegas Golden Knights built a 5-0 lead through two periods over the Kraken en route to a 5-2 win.
Adin Hill made 31 saves for the Knights’ third straight win to open the season.
“We’ve gotten off to a good start,” said Hill. “We have a good group of guys in here playing a good structured game right now, keeping chances to a minimum and it’s exciting. It’s fun and hopefully, we can keep it rolling.”
Justin Schultz and Jaden Schwartz (power play) scored in the third period for Seattle to make the score look a little more acceptable.
“We dug ourselves a hole right off the bat,” Kraken forward Jordan Eberle said. “Down 2-0 really quick, it’s just a lack of being ready, I think. You’re trying to push back and get it. I thought we were creating in little O-zone shifts but we were maybe too dangerous and that gave them opportunities that came back the other way. Those are nights where it is really frustrating … we weren’t really helping out goalie out with odd-man rushes.”
Seattle had little chance to to feel good about their home opener, Keegan Kolesar scored 12 into the game for a 1-0 lead to Vegas.
Marchessault scored a power play goal to up the lead to 2-0 before any cup of beer had a chance to lose its head.
“Getting the other team on their heels and we’re able to score early, that always helps,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Special teams were good … That helps you get the power play going for us and extend leads. So, a lot of good tonight.”
On the power play in the middle frame, Reilly Smith pushed the lead to 3-0 before Marchessault added his second for the 4-0 lead.
“We weren’t sharp with the puck, right from the start of the game,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We were stuck in quicksand for the first 10 minutes of this game. Once we steadied our game a little bit we just didn’t execute with the puck. There were a number of opportunities that we gave them in transition right off of our tape. … They killed us on transition, especially in the second period.”
Shea Theodore also scored for Vegas to give them the 5-0 cushion heading to the third.
“A good start was something that we wanted to focus on after the last game,” Theodore said. “We started poorly and made a lot of turnovers, so being up 2-0 early in the game, that kind of set the tone, and I thought we kind of jumped on them from there.”
Martin Jones made 17 saves and yielded five goals before getting the hook in the second intermission.
Philipp Grubauer made six saves in the third period.
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