The Vegas Golden Knights (0-0-1) fell, 6-5, in a shootout to the Los Angeles Kings (1-1-0) on Opening Knight of the 2025-26 season on Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena.

HOW IT WENT DOWN
Andrei Kuzmenko scored first for Los Angeles five minutes into the first period with a power-play goal to put the Kings up, 1-0. Quinton Byfield tacked on a second goal for the Kings with eight minutes remaining in the opening frame. Pavel Dorofeyev scored the first goal of the season for the Golden Knights just over two minutes into the middle period to bring Vegas within one. Joel Armia extended the Kings’ lead back to two with their third goal of the night with 6:19 remaining in the second period. Dorofeyev responded with his second goal of the period on a power-play one-timer with just under three minutes remaining in second period. Just two minutes later, Dorofeyev posted his third goal of the night as his hat-trick goal evened the score at 3-3 heading into the final period. Mark Stone and Jack Eichel assisted on Dorofeyev’s second and third goals of the game. Eichel gave the Golden Knights their first lead of the night with a goal of his own five minutes into the final frame. Mitch Marner recorded his first point as a Golden Knight with the primary assist on the goal. Ivan Barbashev joined the scoring party to extend Vegas’ lead by two, but Trevor Moore and Brandt Clarke knotted the score at 5-5 with six minutes remaining in the third period. Moore recorded the shootout winner for the Kings for a 6-5 win.

TOP PERFORMERS
Pavel Dorofeyev: Dorofeyev recorded the first Golden Knights hat trick of the 2025-26 season and leads the NHL in goals.

Jack Eichel: Eichel’s four-point night moved him into third most four-point games in Golden Knights history (4).

Mark Stone: Stone extended his point streak in season-openers to seven with two assists on the night.

VGK STATS OF THE KNIGHT
Pavel Dorofeyev is the first Golden Knight to score three goals in one period since Jack Eichel on Nov. 10, 2022.

Eichel recorded four points in his second straight season-opener for the Golden Knights and became just the ninth player in NHL history to record four-plus points in multiple season openers.

ATTENDANCE: 18,393

LOOKING AHEAD
The Golden Knights travel to San Jose to play their second game of a back-to-back on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at SAP Center. The game will exclusively be streamed on ESPN+ and HULU, or fans can listen on FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340. Catch the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. on Scripps Sports or stream on KnightTime+.