ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The stars came out for the Vegas Golden Knights down the stretch of their first-round series.
The outlook for the rest of the NHL playoffs is bright, with a roster just two years removed from their Stanley Cup championship.
By beating the Minnesota Wild in six games, winning the last three by one-goal margins with two of those including the closeout on the road, the Golden Knights became the first Western Conference team to reach the second round.
“I think it’s just kind of experience. Over the years you learn not to get too shaken up early in the series,” said defenseman Shea Theodore, one of three players remaining from the 2017-18 inaugural team.
Theodore scored an early power-play goal in the Game 6 clincher on Thursday night, his second score in three games after going scoreless in the first three.
Jack Eichel and Mark Stone each had a goal and an assist in Game 6 and combined for nine points in the last three games after getting shut out in the first three.
Goaltender Adin Hill gave up 10 goals on 57 shots over the first three games. He let in only seven goals on 85 shots over the last three.
“We knew that would happen. It just took some of those guys a little longer,” said coach Bruce Cassidy, who’s in his third season with the team.
The speed of Eichel and Stone, and thus the rush opportunities, was limited by a bruising Wild team that refused to cede the middle of the ice. They put on a clinic in Game 6 with one crucial play, when Stone shrewdly zipped a long pass out of the zone for a streaking Eichel. The puck eluded the stick of diving Wild star Kirill Kaprizov in his desperation try to stop the breakaway, which Eichel finished with a wrist shot past goalie Filip Gustavsson’s glove.
“Him and Stoney are our team’s heartbeat. When Jack’s going, he’s pretty hard to stop, and he can shut down almost any player in the league, too, defensively,” Hill said. “Leaps and bounds his game has taken here, and the way he’s proven how clutch of a player he is is truly special.”
Cassidy reunited Eichel and Stone after a shuffle for Game 4 split them up. With Pavel Dorofeyev out with an injury, William Karlsson joined them on the first line for Game 6.
“For sure, we had some adversity. Even after Game 3, I felt more confident in our group as weird as that is,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said.
Kaprizov and Matt Boldy were the standouts for the Wild, with five goals apiece for the series. They were instrumental in the 2-1 lead they had after a second straight 5-2 win.
But neither was able to generate much on Thursday, and Eichel had plenty to do with that.
“He wants to be the best, and he certainly doesn’t want to hear how someone is outplaying him,” Cassidy said.
Karlsson, McNabb and Theodore — not to mention Golden Knights fans — have enjoyed quite the run of success since arriving for the debut season in the desert.
In eight years, they’ve made the playoffs seven times, including five as a division champion. They’ve won 12 of 17 series, and one more advancement this spring would give them a fifth trip to the semifinals. They’ve been to the finals twice, in their debut in 2018 and in 2023 when they won it all.
“Ever since I got here, that’s the message — that we want to win. The guys that we bring in, good character guys,” Theodore said. “That’s the message right from (owner) Bill Foley. Guys care about it every year. That’s our goal when we come to training camp, and it’s good to see us playing well, especially at the right time of year.”
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