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Keegan Kolesar scored 12 seconds and Jonathan Marchessault's first of two goals staked the Vegas Golden Knights out to an early two goal lead they would not relinquish and defeated the Seattle Kraken, 5-2 before a sellout crowd of 17,151 on Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena.
The Kraken, in their home opener, dropped their first loss in regulation for the season and will look to re-capture the form from their first two games on the road for a tough matchup on Monday, when the Carolina Hurricanes visit for the only time this season at 7pm (93.3 KJR / Kraken Audio Network).
Aside from the sluggish start, the Kraken struggled with the face-off circle at a 35% clip.
"First shift, got to do a better job - we lose that puck and it's in the back of our net," said forward Yanni Gourde. "It kind of killed our legs a little bit. I'm supposed to be on the ice too, I bring energy for this team. This can't happen in the first shift. I've got to be better."
"You've got to start with the puck as much as you can and tonight we weren't able to do that."
Vegas scored five unanswered goals which ultimately led to Philipp Grubauer replacing Martin Jones (who stopped a second period penalty shot on Chandler Stephenson) in the third period. The Kraken responded with back-to-back goals from Justin Schultz, his first with the team, and Jaden Schwartz's power play goal with 3:43 remaining.
Full postgame coverage is uploaded with Everett Fitzhugh, Dave Tomlinson, Mike Benton, and Nick Olczyk.