Christopher DeVargas
Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar (55) celebrates with his team after scoring his first goal in the NHL against St. Louis in the third period at T-Mobile Arena, Monday, March 22, 2021. The Golden Knights won Blues 5-1.
Monday, March 22, 2021 | 11:05 p.m.
Keegan Kolesar doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his first-goal puck. He’ll chat with his parents later and figure out a good spot.
It will surely be displayed somewhere. After 25 games in the NHL and a seemingly endless supply of close calls, Kolesar finally scored the first of his career Monday. It was a big one, a third-period tally to put the Golden Knights up by a pair in an eventual 5-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Monday.
“I think my reaction and the bench reaction says it all,” Kolesar said. “Very uplifting. It’s been a long time coming, just like a mountain’s off my back.”
Coming into the game, Kolesar had generated 2.27 expected goals this season at 5-on-5, according to advanced stats site Natural Stat Trick, the most on the team without a goal. Kolesar had come so close so many times already this season that you started wondering if it would ever happen.
He seemed to feel the same. The easing of that burden was evident in the form of an infectious smile, both right after the goal and in the postgame press conference, as he finally achieved a life-long goal.
“It was a lot of congrats and a lot more ‘about time,’” Kolesar said of his teammates’ reaction. “Lot of good laughs. I was excited to see the bench react. I think they might have been more excited than I was, so overall it was a fun and exciting moment for me.”
It was clear to his teammates just how much this meant to him. Nicolas Hague, who assisted on the goal, fished the puck out of the net to be placed in a display case to be named later as Kolesar pumped his fist and skated to the raucous bench.
“The boys were fired up for sure. We were howling on the bench,” forward William Karlsson said. “We could share his relief. He’s had a couple of chances in every game and it was huge to see him have one tonight, and hopefully that’s just one of many more to come.”
Outside of Kolesar’s big night, it was perhaps the Golden Knights’ best defensive effort of the season. It was 1-1 going to the third and Vegas scored four times, including two on the power play, to tilt the scoreboard, but the Golden Knights’ ability to shut down St. Louis was more important than the offensive explosion.
Vegas held the Blues to just 16 shots on goal, tied for the fewest of the season. The expected-goals against of 1.39 was the second-lowest of the season, according to Natural Stat Trick, as were the 40 shot attempts allowed. The penalty kill allowed just one shot on two St. Louis opportunities.
On the few chances the Blues did have, goalie Robin Lehner was there to shut them down, with no save bigger than denying sniper Vladimir Tarasenko on a breakaway in the third period.
“That’s a big, heavy team that likes to play in the offensive zone, and I thought we did a good job of defending as a five-man unit and making sure we had numbers in all those situations,” coach Pete DeBoer said.
Vegas captain Mark Stone scored twice and added an assist, giving him a team-best 38 points this season. He has 21 points in 12 games this month, tops in the NHL.
Karlsson had a goal and two assists for the Golden Knights, and Jonathan Marchessault had a goal and an assist.
It was a big night for plenty of Golden Knights, but the night belonged to Kolesar. He’s had four assists this year and even two fights, but getting the goal was what everyone wanted to see.
“He’s been working so hard, he’s had so many good looks, he’s come to the rink every day with a smile on his face,” Stone said. “I said to him on the way over, ‘I think now that you’ve got your first one you’re going to score a lot more goals.’ It gets in the back in your head, so I’m really happy he got that one. He’s very deserving and I think everybody in the room is really happy for him.”
All Kolesar could do was smile and respond with a “Thanks, captain.”