The Vegas Golden Knights (39-26-17) finished the regular season on a high note with a 4-1 victory against the Seattle Kraken (34-36-11) Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena.
The two points brought Vegas’ season total to 95, which was enough to finish atop the Pacific Division standings. It is the Golden Knights’ fifth division title in nine seasons. Vegas will face the Utah Mammoth in the first round.
The Golden Knights have gone 7-0-1 under head coach John Tortorella and finished an up-and-down regular season on a 10-game point streak (7-0-3).
In game No. 82 of the 2025-26 campaign, Vegas trailed 1-0 early in the second period but went on to score four unanswered goals, with Reilly Smith lighting the lamp twice in the third period.
Carter Hart won his sixth straight start and was particularly clutch in the first period when Seattle recorded 10 of the first 11 shots.
In the end, the Kraken outshot the Golden Knights 11-6 in a scoreless opening frame, but Shane Wright broke through just 2:24 into the second period to give the road team the 1-0 lead.
With 2:25 remaining in the period, however, Shea Theodore hit double-digits with his 10th goal of the year to knot things up at 1-1 through 40 minutes. It was a critical goal for the Golden Knights and helped turn the tide.
Vegas proceeded to add three more tallies in the third period, starting with Mitch Marner just 83 seconds in.
Smith then scored to make it 3-1 at 12:01.
He added his second of the night and 16th of the season 4:35 later to put the game out of reach and lock up the 4-1 win.
A lot has changed over the last few weeks, but the Golden Knights seemingly have turned their season around.
It has only been an eight-game stretch, but this feels like a different team, and the change couldn’t be coming at a better time.
“I think we have high expectations and we try to live that every day,” Smith said. “We don’t accept losing, and I think the last couple weeks is a good testament to that.”
The Golden Knights finished the regular season on a 7-0-1 run with points in 10 straight to claim another Pacific Division title, which was their goal from the start of the season.
Some of the common mistakes that plagued Vegas’ game this season have not been wiped clean, such as slow starts. However, Vegas’ recovery from those slow starts, as well as its ability to stop the bleeding, have taken undeniable strides.
“You want to have a lot of success and positivity going into the playoffs,” Smith said. “I think this group has it. Starts in games was an issue for us for a while, and I think we’ve kind of nipped that in the bud. At least over the last few weeks, it’s been a lot better. That was a little bit of our kryptonite going through most of the regular season. We’ve always been a good third-period team, but not being down every night going into the third period has helped us. Confidence is huge, and I think there’s a lot in this group now.”
Though things have improved, tonight was another slow start for Vegas. That being said, Hart kept the Golden Knights in the game and prevented Seattle from capitalizing when the ice was tilted.
“Tonight we played a little slow, and give credit to Seattle; that’s a fast team,” Tortorella said. “They were quicker than us early on. The two things that stick out to me tonight is, first of all, Carter Hart gives us a chance to get our feet on the ground when we struggled a little bit. He kept us there until we got going. And we just slowly went about our business and finally found our game halfway through the second period.”
The fresh start and shift in mindset under Tortorella has done wonders, as has the activation of Hart, who is 6-0-0 since returning from injury. He stopped 22 of 23 Seattle shots for a .957 save percentage and is the unequivocal starter for Vegas heading into the playoffs.
Jack Eichel recorded another multi-point game, but Smith led the way with two goals and an assist. For someone who has served as a healthy scratch, he certainly made a convincing case for himself to make it into the starting lineup for Game 1 this weekend.
“You always want to have confidence in your game and see the puck going into the back of the net when you’re heading into the biggest part of the season,” Smith said. “Personally, it’s nice. Bigger than that, to help the team and get home ice for the first couple rounds if we can do that is way more important.”
It wasn’t a perfect performance, though Tortorella said it was a useful experience.
“It’s a type of game that if you knew the result, that you were gonna win, you almost want to play one of those before playoffs,” he said. “You don’t like being in it when it’s going on, but I give our guys a lot of credit; they stayed with it and just kept on playing.”
The Golden Knights now have momentum going into the postseason, with home-ice advantage through at least the first two rounds. Considering where things were headed, it’s an impressive turn of events.
“The way we’ve been playing, I think more and more consistently, is the way we want to play,” Tortorella said. “It’s certainly nothing elaborate. It’s just about playing fast and playing forward. We want to be aggressive, we want to be up the ice, we want to take time and space in all three zones. It’s not a crazy formula by any means, it’s a mindset, and it’s hard. It’s a lot of hard work, but I think they’ve grabbed a hold of it, and I think we have found some consistency. I think they feel more and more comfortable with it.”
There were several possibilities for Vegas’ first-round opponent heading into this game, including Utah, Anaheim and Los Angeles, but Vegas will face the Mammoth franchise in its first postseason appearance since relocating.
One advantage against Utah will be Vegas’ veteran leadership and playoff experience.
“Having a lot of guys that have had experience winning a Stanley Cup, having long runs in the playoffs, that’s important,” Smith said. “There’s gonna be a lot of ups and downs in the playoffs, and momentum swings. The teams that can handle those the quickest usually get a little more success and have an upper hand. There’s a lot of that in the locker room, so we kind of have to lean on that a little bit.”
When asked if he had any initial thoughts on the matchup against Utah, Tortorella’s answer was simple: “No.”
Smith, on the other hand, had a little more to say.
“The strength of this team is sticking to our gameplay,” he said. “There’s a lot of unknown. I don’t think you ever want to wish on a team. It’s nice to know who you’re playing, and maybe get an extra day of preparation, but it’s gonna be a hard challenge, and we have to make sure that we’re prepared.”
The Golden Knights won one of three meetings (1-2-0) against Utah this year.
“Have to get to another level,” Tortorella said about the playoffs. “Have to get to another level in all areas: puck battles, wall play, our discipline as far as our third man. It’s the most exciting time because everybody’s playing at a different level, and it’s a good test to see how high you can get as a team. FIrst of all, as a player, and then within the team concepts. Everything’s gonna be amped up. As each game goes by in the series, it’s gonna be harder and harder, so it’s a great challenge for the players.”
The NHL has yet to release the schedule, but the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs officially begin Saturday.
Photo courtesy of the Golden Knights