Behind Brayden Schenn's late goal, Blues open 2026 with a 4-3 win over Golden Knights

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Jan 2, 2026

Published in Hockey

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ST. LOUIS — The Blues put last year behind them with a 4-3 win over the Golden Knights on Friday afternoon at Enterprise Center.

Brayden Schenn scored the game-winning goal for St. Louis with 1:33 remaining in the third period. Schenn cleaned up a rebound of a Jimmy Snuggerud shot on a 2 on 1, which was sprung by Pavel Buchnevich's takeaway in the neutral zone.

Alexey Toropchenko, Justin Faulk and Oskar Sundqvist scored for the Blues. Keegan Kolesar, Mark Stone and Pavel Dorofeyev scored for Vegas.

Joel Hofer made 21 saves.

The Blues finish their afternoon back-to-back set on Saturday against the Canadiens at 3 p.m.

A pair of fourth-liners got the scoring started on Friday afternoon, as Kolesar and Toropchenko were two of the most unlikely scorers on each roster.

Kolesar scored at 10:12 of the first period, sprung in alone on Hofer after Vegas won a puck along the boards. Jake Neighbours turned the puck over at the offensive blue line, allowing Kolesar to shuffle the puck forward and for Colton Sissons to flip it from the boards to the middle of the ice for Kolesar.

Kolesar beat Hofer on a shot short side for his first goal of the season. In fact, Kolesar's goal snapped a 61-game goal drought. Entering Friday, that was tied for third-longest active drought among NHL forwards. Hendrix Lapierre (80) and Kurtis MacDermid (78) were the only forwards with longer active droughts than Kolesar.

Toropchenko himself had not scored since Nov. 5 in Washington, and his goal on Friday was the second of his season. Toropchenko scored 27 seconds after Kolesar to bring the Blues even at 1.

Toropchenko started the play in the defensive zone by deflecting a rink-wide pass and springing a rush the other way. Toropchenko eventually sped wide on Ben Hutton to get a shot off on Carter Hart. He followed his own rebound and put the puck between Hart's legs.

After scoring 10 goals in 2022-23 and 14 goals in 2023-24, Toropchenko has ticked down recently with four goals last season and two just over halfway into the 2025-26 season.

The goals by Kolesar and Toropchenko followed the Blues' best chance early in the game, a penalty shot by Jordan Kyrou. Kyrou, coming out of the penalty box for a holding penalty, had a breakaway but was slashed from behind by Noah Hanifin.

On his penalty shot attempt, Kyrou slowed in the slot, swiveled left and right before Hart made a glove save. In his career, Kyrou was 4 for 20 in the shootout (20%) and it was his first penalty shot in the NHL.

Had officials given the Blues a power play, they would have iced a unit converting on 17.9% of their chances this season.

Give and take

Faulk scored his team-leading 11th goal of the season in the second period, giving the Blues a 2-1 lead. Faulk was set up by a pass from Buchnevich from the boards to the slot.

Faulk is now six goals away from tying his career-best 17 goals set in 2016-17 with Carolina.

Later in the period, Faulk also had a turnover in his own zone that led directly to Stone's goal. Faulk tried a pass from the corner through three Golden Knights that was batted out of the air by Brett Howden and later finished by Stone at the net-front.

Faulk's third-period turnover in his own zone allowed Dorofeyev's game-tying goal with 11:39 left in the game. Faulk overskated a puck on the boards, allowing Dorofeyev to stick-handle around Hofer as the puck barely crossed the goal line before it was cleared by Tyler Tucker.

Play went on on the ice before the play was ultimately ruled a goal.

Finish it himself

Sundqvist also scored his second goal of the season, a second-period tally at 6:37 that gave the Blues a 3-1 lead. It came 58 seconds after Faulk's goal.

Sundqvist originally tried to center a pass for Kyrou at the crease, but it was knocked down, and Sundqvist crashed the net himself to score.

The goal gave each of the three members of the fourth line a multi-point night: Sundqvist and Toropchenko (one goal, one assist) and Mathieu Joseph (two assists).

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