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NHL players have long memories.
Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar found himself on the wrong end of a brief first-period battle in Saturday's game against the Florida Panthers, the first meeting between the teams since the Stanley Cup Final in June.
Kolesar had knocked Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk out of Game 3 of the series with a booming, legal check.
Although Tkachuk returned, forcing overtime in a 3-2 win and seeing limited action in Game 4, he missed the Golden Knights' decisive win in Game 5 because he suffered a broken sternum from the Kolesar hit.
During this series too, microphones caught Kolesar on the bench calling the Panthers pretenders. The Golden Knights won the Cup.
On Saturday, Kolesar and robust Panthers player Ryan Lomberg duel immediately after a faceoff in the first period. The fight didn't last long. Lomberg knocked Kolesar down with one punch.
Kolesar got up and went straight to the locker room, but was able to return at the start of the second period and received an assist on Pavel Dorofeyev's goal.
“I thank him for allowing me to make amends for last year,” Lomberg told reporters after the game. “He gave me the chance to even the score. He’s a pretty difficult customer to get back.”
The Panthers won 4-2, with Tkachuk receiving two assists and becoming involved in a scuffle with Vegas' Alex Pietrangelo as time expired. Those two and three other players received 10-minute misconduct notices.
“I think we were all really happy with our game tonight,” Lomberg said. “We were tough. We were quick. We were physical when we needed to be, so it’s good to stop counterattacking.”
The teams' next meeting will take place on January 4th in Las Vegas.