Oct. 10: Golden Knights become first expansion team to start 3-0-0

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: Oct. 10
2017: The Vegas Golden Knights score four goals in the first period and
defeat the Arizona Coyotes 5-2
at T-Mobile Arena in their home opener, becoming the first expansion team to win its first three games.

Following an emotional ceremony that honors victims and first responders after the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1,
Tomas Nosek
scores the first home goal in Golden Knights history 2:31 into the game. Defenseman Deryk Engelland, a Las Vegas resident, makes it 2-0 at 4:18, and James Neal scores at 6:15 and 10:42 to put the Golden Knights ahead 4-0. Marc-Andre Fleury makes 31 saves for his third straight win.
Neal's first goal is the game-winner. He becomes the second player in the expansion era (since 1967) to score the winning goal in each of his team's first three games, joining
Brian Propp
of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1982-83.
MORE MOMENTS
1970:The Buffalo Sabres win their NHL debut by
defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1
at the Civic Arena.
Jim Watson
scores the first goal in Sabres history 5:01 into in the second period, and
Gilbert Perreault
gets the game-winner at 11:26 of the third. It's the first of his 512 goals on the way to induction in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
On the same night, Al Arbour makes his NHL coaching debut with the St. Louis Blues in a
3-1 win against the New York Rangers
at St. Louis Arena. Arbour coaches the Blues for 107 games before being fired, then goes on to coach 1,500 games with the New York Islanders, guiding them to four consecutive Stanley Cup championships from 1980-83.
1974: Sabres rookie forward
Danny Gare
scores 18 seconds into his first NHL game. It's the second-fastest goal by a rookie in his NHL debut; the record is 15 seconds, set by
Gus Bodnar
of the Toronto Maple Leafs on
Oct. 30, 1943
. The
Sabres defeat the Boston Bruins 9-5
at Memorial Auditorium in their season opener. Gare finishes his first NHL season with 31 goals.
1979:
Wayne Gretzky
makes his NHL debut with the Edmonton Oilers and
gets his first point, an assist
, in a 4-2 road loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. Gretzky's assist comes on the first NHL goal in Oilers history, by defenseman
Kevin Lowe
at 9:49 of the first period.
Dave Hunter
scores just over five minutes later to tie the game 2-2, but power-play goals by
John Marks
at 18:55 of the first period and
Bob Murray
at 15:36 of the second are enough to give the Blackhawks the win.
Gretzky doesn't score his first NHL goal until his third game, but he finishes the season with 51 goals and 137 points, tying him with
Marcel Dionne
of the Los Angeles Kings for the NHL lead.
1987:
Doug Jarvis
of the Hartford Whalers plays in his NHL-record 964th consecutive game,
a 6-2 loss
to the New York Rangers. But game No. 964 will be his last. One night later, the streak ends when Jarvis misses Hartford's game against the Boston Bruins because of an injury. He is sent to Binghamton of the American Hockey League as a player-coach and never plays another NHL game.

1989:Players from the Soviet Union face each other for the first time in an NHL game. The New Jersey Devils lineup includes defensemen
Viacheslav Fetisov
and
Sergei Starikov
; the visiting Calgary Flames use forwards
Sergei Priakin
and
Sergei Makarov
. Priakin scores the game-winning goal and Makarov has an assist in
Calgary's 4-2 victory
.
1998:
Brian Sutter
earns his 300th victory as an NHL coach when the Flames
defeat the San Jose Sharks 5-3
in Tokyo. A hat trick by
Theo Fleury
helps Sutter become the first in NHL history to get 300 wins as a coach after scoring 300 goals as a player.
On the same night, the Nashville Predators make their NHL debut at home against the Florida Panthers. Florida goalie
Kirk McLean
makes 26 saves
and
Ray Whitney
scores a third-period power-play goal in a 1-0 victory.
2002:At age 19,
Stanislav Chistov
becomes the youngest player in NHL history to
get four points
in his first game. He scores a goal and has three assists to help the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim defeat the St. Louis Blues 4-3 at Savvis Center.
2015:The Panthers set a modern-day NHL record for the fastest four goals from the start of a season in their
7-1 opening-night victory against the Flyers
against the Flyers at BB&T Center. Vincent Trocheck, Nick Bjugstad, Reilly Smith and
Jussi Jokinen
score in the game's first 6:46 to give Florida a 4-0 lead.
2019: Patrick Marleau scores two goals in his return to the San Jose Sharks, sparking them to their first victory of the season,
5-4 against the Chicago Blackhawks
at United Center. The 40-year-old forward becomes the eighth player in NHL history to score goals with the same franchise before turning 20 and after turning 40. He does it one day after signing with the team he spent 19 seasons with before joining the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent for two seasons. It's also Marleau's 789th consecutive NHL game, sixth on the all-time list.