Jack Eichel was one of three Vegas players to tally a goal and an assist, and the Golden Knights held on for a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild to clinch their Western Conference first-round series on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Shea Theodore and Mark Stone also finished with a goal and an assist for Vegas, which won the best-of-seven series in six games. Brayden McNabb collected a pair of assists.
“We found ways to win,” said Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy, whose team closed out the series with three consecutive victories. “Our top guys are a lot more impactful in the last three games than the first three. That’s probably the story right there.”
The Golden Knights advanced to the conference semifinals for the second time in three seasons and will face the Edmonton Oilers, who eliminated the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday in six games. Vegas won the Stanley Cup title in 2023 but was bounced out of the first round last season.
Ryan Hartman scored both goals for Minnesota, which hasn’t won a playoff series since the 2014-15 season.
“We battled,” Hartman said. “Two overtime losses the last two games and a close one tonight. It felt like it easily could have gone 7, but we felt like we had what it took to go forward.”
Vegas goaltender Adin Hill, who stopped 29 of 31 shots to earn the victory, credited the work of his team’s defense, especially late in the game.
“I don’t know if they even got a shot in those last two minutes,” Hill said. “The guys beared down and they were great in front of me.”
Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 20 saves on 23 shots.
Vegas opened the scoring on the power play 3:30 into the first period. Theodore handled the puck in the high slot and ripped a wrist shot through traffic and into the back of the net.
The sequence marked Theodore’s second goal in the past three games of the series. The 29-year-old defenseman finished with seven goals in 67 games during the regular season.
The Wild pulled even on Hartman’s goal with less than four seconds left in the first. Marcus Foligno had the puck along the boards and slid a pass to Hartman, who fired a one-timer from the high slot.
Eichel put the Golden Knights back on top 2-1 with 3:48 remaining in the second. He sprinted toward the net on a breakaway and turned to his forehand for a shot that zipped past Gustavsson’s glove side.
Vegas made it 3-1 with 3:58 left in the third. Stone stood near the front of the crease and batted a puck out of midair and into the net.
Thirty-one seconds later, the Wild responded to trim the deficit to 3-2. Hartman recorded his second goal of the game as he came from behind the net and stuffed the puck across the goal line.
“Give credit to them, they’re a really good team,” Foligno said of the Golden Knights. “It’s unfortunate. We just couldn’t get our looks and our bounces and move on like they did. I’m proud of our group, though. … We always say the future’s bright, but I really do feel like we’re right there.”
Eichel said of the Wild, “They gave us everything we can handle. They played so hard. They didn’t give us much.”
–Field Level Media
