Logan Thompson made 22 saves and Nicolas Hague had a goal and an assist to lead the visiting Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-1 victory over San Jose in the season opener for the Sharks on Thursday night.
It was the eighth multi-point game of Hague’s career. Michael Amadio, Nicolas Roy and Brayden Pachal also scored goals for Vegas. William Karlsson added a pair of assists for the Golden Knights, who improved to 21-7-0 all-time in the regular season against San Jose.
Thompson, a 2023 All-Star who missed most of the second half of the season with a left leg injury, picked up his first victory in goal since March 23 at Calgary.
Vegas was playing its second game after opening its defense of the Stanley Cup championship with a 4-1 home win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
Filip Zadina scored for San Jose, which dropped its seventh straight game dating back to a 7-2 victory at Arizona on April 1. Kaapo Kahkonen finished with 28 saves for the Sharks.
Vegas took a 1-0 lead at the 15:25 mark of the first period when Karlsson circled around behind the net and then passed to Amadio at the bottom of the left circle. Amadio then roofed a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net.
San Jose tied it near the end of the period when Zadina scooped up a bouncing puck near the bottom of the right circle and then fired a spinning wrist shot through Thompson’s pads.
Vegas scored twice in a 53-second span late in the second period to take a 3-1 lead.
Hague got the first one, a one-timer from the top of the right circle off an Alex Pietrangelo pass that scooted along the ice and through Kahkonen’s pads. Roy, breaking down the right wing, then snapped a wrist shot past Kahkonen’s glove side with just 36 seconds left in the second period.
Pachal then extended the Vegas lead to 4-1 at 2:11 of the third period. He creeped in and snapped a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle through traffic and past Kahkonen’s blocker side for the first goal of his NHL career.
–Field Level Media
