NHL players have long memories.
Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar was on the wrong end of a brief first-period fight in Saturday’s game against the Florida Panthers, the first contest between the teams since the Stanley Cup Final in June.
Kolesar had knocked Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk out of Game 3 of the series with a booming, legal check.
Though Tkachuk would return, force overtime during a 3-2 win and play limited action in Game 4, he missed the Golden Knights’ Game 5 clinching win because the Kolesar hit had left him with a fractured sternum.
Also during that series, microphones caught Kolesar on the bench calling the Panthers pretenders.
On Saturday, Kolesar and rugged Panthers player Ryan Lomberg squared off right after a faceoff during the first period. The fight didn’t last long. Lomberg knocked down Kolesar with one punch.
Kolesar got up and went straight to the dressing room but was able to return for the start of the second period and picked up an assist on Pavel Dorofeyev’s goal.
‘Credit to him for kind of letting me get redemption for last year,’ Lomberg told reporters after the game. ‘He gave me the chance to even the score. He’s a pretty tough customer to come back.’
The Panthers won 4-2 with Tkachuk picking up two assists and getting involved in a scuffle with Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo as time expired. Those two and three other players received 10-minute misconducts.
‘I think we were all really happy with our game tonight,’ Lomberg said. ‘We were hard. We were fast. We were physical when we needed to be, so it’s a good one to leave off of on the break.’
The teams next meet on Jan. 4 in Las Vegas.