Hague, Golden Knights spoil Sharks season opener

SAN JOSE -- Nicolas Hague had a goal and an assist for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 4-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Thursday.

Brayden Pachal scored his first NHL goal, William Karlsson had two assists and Logan Thompson made 22 saves for the Golden Knights (2-0-0), who defeated the Seattle Kraken 4-1 on Tuesday.

"Tonight, I thought [the difference] was our guys that we don't typically rely on that did a lot," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "That shows you're a good team when you don't need your top guys to have their A-games all the time. ... It's not the usual suspects, and you need that if you're going to be a good team.”

Filip Zadina scored, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 28 saves for the Sharks in their season opener.

"We're still coming together as a team, and there were a lot of things I liked about our game tonight," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "For 38 minutes, it's a 1-1 hockey game, and then we didn't handle the adversity the way that we need to."

Michael Amadio gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 15:25 of the first period after a cross-ice feed from Karlsson.

Zadina tied it 1-1 at 17:48 on a wraparound. It was his first goal with the Sharks after signing as an unrestricted free agent during the offseason.

"We were trying to put the pucks on net to create some chances, some rebounds," Zadina said. "It was kind of like a lucky bounce. It hit Tommy (Hertl), and I was the net-front guy and just was in the right spot at the right time."

Hague made it 2-1 at 18:31 of the second period on a one-timer from the right face-off circle, and Nicolas Roy made it 3-1 at 19:24.

"Obviously, they had a push,” Roy said. “They had some energy for their first game, but we found a way and found the back of the net. At the end of the second, we played our best hockey."

"That was tough, kind of like what happened to us last year," Hertl said. "We played hard for two periods and couldn't get that extra goal. And after the third [Vegas goal], we tried but everybody started doing their own thing.

“We just have to play for 60 minutes the same way every night. It doesn't matter if we are up or down."

Pachal, a 24-year-old defenseman playing his 14th NHL game, scored at 2:11 of the third period when he spun and scored on a wrist shot from the right circle after a feed from Pavel Dorofeyev.

"It's a dream come true," Pachal said. "You've grown up playing hockey, it’s one of the things that you dream of, scoring your first NHL goal. I'm super fortunate and grateful to have done that tonight."

NOTES: Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo left the game with 2:35 remaining after he was struck on the side of the head by a shot from Hague. … The Golden Knights extended their road point streak to 11-0-3 against the Sharks, tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning (11-0-3 at the Chicago Blackhawks) for the longest active run against one team. … Pachal was plus-3 in 16:48 of ice time. … Hertl won 12 of 18 face-offs. … San Jose defenseman Kyle Burroughs was minus-3 in 18:00.