Kraken’s first game ends in a loss to Vegas
The Vegas Golden Knights earned a victory in their first game in franchise history four years ago. They denied the Seattle Kraken the same accomplishment Tuesday night.
Max Pacioretty scored twice as the Golden Knights spoiled Seattle’s debut with a 4-3 win.
“I think our exhibition schedule was kind of up and down a little bit but we’ve got a veteran group and they know when it’s time to dial it up and be ready to play and I thought our group was ready to play tonight,” Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said.
Chandler Stephenson and Jonathan Marchessault also scored for Vegas, while Robin Lehner made 25 saves.
After four years of cheering for Marc-Andre Fleury as the face of the franchise, an announced crowd of 18,431 gave Lehner and roar of approval during pregame introductions, and a raucous ovation after the final horn.
“I loved it,” DeBoer said of the fans’ reaction toward Lehner. “I’m glad the fans gave him that. I think he’s gonna be really good for us. This was a tough night that he’s been thinking about for a long time and he got us a big win.”
CAPITALS 5, RANGERS 1 >> Washington made a seasonopening victory against division-rival New York memorable for Alex Ovechkin’s 731st and 732nd goals and Hendrix Lapierre’s first.
Ovechkin scored twice to pass Marcel Dionne for sole possession of fifth place on the NHL goals list, putting him a couple of steps closer to Wayne Gretzky’s record that had long seemed unbreakable. And Gretzky was even part of Lapierre’s goal, talking about his relationship with Ovechkin on national television while the 19-yearold put the puck into the net and went sliding into the boards.
MAPLE LEAFS 2, CANADIENS 1>> William Nylander broke a tie at 1:06 of the third period and Toronto beat visiting Montreal in the opener for both teams. Nylander took a pass from Morgan Rielly off the rush before faking a slap shot and high to goalie Jake Allen’s short side.