Follow usLas Vegas Golden Knights kicked-off their title defense with a 4-1 victory over Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. Adin Hill stopped 32 of total 33 shots towards his goal and Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist for the win.
Jonathan Marchessault, Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel also scored goals and Mark Stone added two assists for Vegas, which raised its first Stanley Cup banner in T-Mobile Arena during a glitzy pregame ceremony.
Jared McCann scored for Seattle, which is opening the season with a three-game road trip that continues on Thursday at Nashville. Philipp Grubauer finished with 24 saves.
Vegas took a 1-0 lead on its first shot of the season through Stephenson and increased their lead to 2-0 at the 14:57 mark of the first period when Kraken forward Brandon Tanev, trying to put the puck behind his own net, had his pass deflect off the blade of Marchessault’s stick and into the top left corner of the goal past a startled Grubauer.
Barbashev made it 3-0 at the 1:20 mark of the second period before Seattle cut it to 3-1 midway through the second period when McCann got his first goal of the season.
Howden received a five-minute major and a match penalty with 13:58 remaining in the third period for an illegal shoulder check to the head of Tanev in the neutral zone. But the Kraken were unable to capitalize on the ensuing five-minute power play with Hill turning away six shots. Eichel then sealed the win for the Golden Knights with an empty-net goal with 1:15 remaining.
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