from Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News,

The snickering started more than eight hours before faceoff as the Vegas Golden Knights were waiting for the Zamboni to finish its rounds so they could take their morning skate at KeyBank Center.

A group of Knights were huddled in front of the boards laughing and you could hear a voice of one chuckle while saying, "We should boo him when he comes out here."

They thought better of it but it was clear everyone in the visitors' locker room knew what to expect Thursday night. Jack Eichel was back in Buffalo and that was going to spark rage in the crowd. The fans were at full-throated hostility for 40 minutes as Eichel – who got booed unmercifully every time he touched the puck – had no points and his team was clinging to a 3-2 lead.

Then they had no choice but to zip it.

Eichel came close to cracking the scoresheet in the first two periods but Eric Comrie stuffed him three times, twice on breakaways. In the third period, Eichel assisted on Alex Pietrangelo's goal at 3:52, banged home a Pietrangelo rebound at 6:13, sizzled a wrister past Comrie at 14:37 and then lofted an empty netter 190 feet to cap a hat trick with 7.6 seconds to go.

continued

Game highlights are below.