Adin Hill made 31 saves in his first start with the Vegas Golden Knights as they defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-2 at Climate Pledge Arena for their third straight win to start the season.
Jonathan Marchessault scored twice and Shea Theodore had a goal and an assist as Vegas got their four-game road trip off to a good start.
"We've gotten off to a good start", said Hill, who was traded to the Golden Knights from San Jose on August 29th. "We have a good group of guys in here playing a good structured game right now, keeping chances to a minimum and it's exciting. "It's fun and hopefully we can keep it rolling."
Martin Jones made 17 saves for Seattle, who has lost both of their home openers in franchise history. Philipp Grubauer replaced Jones in the third period and made six saves.
"We dug ourselves a hole right off the bat", Kraken forward Jordan Eberle said. "Down 2-0 really quick, it's just a lack of being ready, I think. You're trying to push back and get ready.
"I thought we were creating in little O-zone shifts but we were maybe too dangerous and that gave them opportunities that came back the other way.
"Those are nights when it's really frustrating ... we weren't helping our goalie out with odd-man rushes."
Vegas sharp as they rout Seattle
Just 12 seconds into the game, the Golden Knights were on top. William Carrier stole the puck inside the blue line and sent it to a wide open Keegan Kolesar, who beat Jones.
Marchessault scored on the power play about three minutes later as he tapped in a cross-ice pass from Alex Pietrangelo to make it 2-0.
"A good start was something we wanted to focus on after the last game", Theodore said. "We started poorly and made a lot of turnovers, so being up 2-0 early in the game, that kind of set the tone, and I thought we kind of jumped on them from there."
Reilly Smith extended the lead with a power-play goal with 6:05 left in the second period and Marchessault made it 4-0 as he banked in a shot off of Jones.
Theodore pushed it to 5-0 with 17 seconds left with a wrist shot from the blue line.
"Getting the other team on their heels and we're able to score early, that always helps", said Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy. "Special teams were good ... That helps you get the power play going for us and extend leads. So, a lot of good tonight."
Justin Schultz got Seattle on the board and Jaden Schwartz tallied a power-play marker with 3:43 left, but the game was out of reach for the Kraken at that point.
"We weren't sharp with the puck, right from the start of the game", said coach Dave Hakstol. "We were stuck in quicksand for the first ten minutes of the game.
"Once we steadied our game a little bit, we just didn't execute with the puck. There were a number of opportunities we gave them in transition right off of our tape. ... They killed us on transition, especially in the second period."