Sportsnaut
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 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.
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 when 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
