Jiri Patera earns first NHL win in debut, Golden Knights edge Blues

Jiri Patera, the Czech native who was called up to replace the injured Adin Hill, made his debut and won his first NHL game Sunday as the Golden Knights got by the St. Louis Blues.

Patera made 30 saves in the 5-3 win. Pavel Dorofeyev scored his first NHL goal and Vegas also got goals from Michael Amadio, Jonathan Marchessault, Alex Pietrangelo, and William Karlsson.

Patera was asked after the game about the style the Blues were playing with.

“They were trying to play the rush hockey,” he said. “It’s not always ideal for a goaltender, but we kept them on the outside and I saw all the shots, so the guys made it a lot easier for me.”

Newly-acquired forward Ivan Barbeshev, who was making his return to St. Louis after being traded a couple of weeks ago, had nothing but praise for Dorofeyev, who nabbed his first goal.

“He’s a really good kid, really skilled,” Barbashev said. “He scored a pretty nice goal today off the head. I think it’s really nice to see for him. He was actually working really hard today and the guys were really happy for him.”

Barbeshev was also given a standing ovation from the Blues faithful after a video tribute on the scoreboard.

“I’ve been here for seven years,” he said. “I really tried to play my best over here. Sometimes it wasn’t really good, but in the end, it was really exciting to see.”

Head coach Bruce Cassidy gave his analysis and said once again he was pleased with his team’s performance, who will wrap up their road trip on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“We just kept playing,” Cassidy said. “It was a good goal by them. I don’t look at it as a huge breakdown after breakdown after breakdown. That’s when you get worried. So they made a good play. They can score, but we also know they can give up some goals so we just said let’s just stick with it, get back to work, and we did.”