Ilya Samsonov made 22 saves in his first start for the Las Vegas Golden Knights in a 3-1 victory over the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night.
Brett Howden, Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeev scored for the Golden Knights, and Keegan Kolesar had two assists, as the Golden Knights opened the season for the third straight year with three straight wins.
Troy Terry scored for the Ducks, who won 2-0 in their season opener against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.
Anaheim goaltender James Reimer also made his debut with the team after being claimed off waivers by the Buffalo Sabers on Monday, making 29 saves.
Hertl scored a power-play goal at 5:18 of the third period to give Las Vegas a 2-1 lead.
Ducks center Isaac Landerstrom broke his stick on a faceoff to start a power play in Vegas’ zone end, but Anaheim was unable to clear the puck before Mark Stone turned Hartl back to center. There wasn’t.
At 14:09 of the third period, Las Vegas increased its lead to 3-1 when Kolesar stole the puck from rookie defenseman Tristan Renaud in the Anaheim zone, returned the puck to Dorofeev, who made a wrist shot from the right circle. .
At 6:17 of the first period, the Golden Knights led 1-0.
Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler briefly held the ball behind the Anaheim net, but Kolesar intercepted a backhand pass on the ice, giving Alex Pietrangelo a feed into the goal. His shot was saved, but the puck fell into the crease and Howden poured it into the net before Reimer could react.
The Ducks tied the score at 1-1 at 11:49 of the first inning.
Ivan Barbashev had the puck at the left point and tried to feed Shea Theodore just beyond the blue line, but Terry intercepted it for a breakaway. Terry waited until he reached the inside edge of the right circle before beating Samsonov to the short side.
–Field level media
