The Vegas Golden Knights (49-22-9) claimed their fourth Pacific Division title in eight seasons thanks to a 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
It was the long-awaited emotional return of Original Misfit Jonathan Marchessault, who scored in the third period to kickstart a Predators rally. However, Noah Hanifin’s go-ahead goal with 1:55 remaining lifted the Golden Knights to victory in their final home game of the regular season.
The Golden Knights honored Marchessault with a video tribute, and the Vegas faithful gave him a fitting standing ovation before “Marchy” chants erupted across the arena.
Vegas got goals from Brett Howden, Nicolas Roy, Alexander Holtz, Hanifin and Ivan Barbashev. Adin Hill gave up three goals on 17 shots (.824 save percentage) but held on for his 32nd win in his 50th start of the season, both career highs.
The Golden Knights were dominant in the first period, leading 15-5 in shots and 8-2 in high-danger chances with an 89.14 percent expected goal share. However, Vegas trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes thanks to a goal by Jordan Oesterle, who stepped into a one-timer and beat Hill 8:11 into the contest. At the time, Vegas held a 10-1 edge in shots.
But the Golden Knights responded with two goals in the span of 1:34 early in the second period.
After an unsuccessful man-advantage for Vegas, Howden jumped into the play and fired a rocket past Nashville netminder Justus Annunen for the equalizer.
It was Howden’s 23rd goal of the year, the same number of goals he tallied in his previous three seasons combined.
The Golden Knights took a 2-1 lead when Vegas worked the puck off the wall to the slot, with Keegan Kolesar and Roy completing a give-and-go for Roy’s 14th of the season.
Shea Theodore recorded the secondary assist on the play for his 55th point of the year, setting a franchise record for most points by a defenseman in a single season.
On the Golden Knights’ third power play of the game, the third time was the charm. An excellent passing sequence by the second unit set up Holtz for the backdoor tap-in for Vegas’ third goal in just over seven minutes. It was Holtz’s fourth goal of the year, and it was assisted by William Karlsson and Reilly Smith, who continue to impress.
“I feel more confident,” Holtz said. “It was really fun to be out there, and really fun to be up with this group again, and nice to get a win.”
Holtz said he learned from his recent stint in the AHL to “take advantage of opportunities when you get it; never take anything for granted.” As he and head coach Bruce Cassidy acknowledged, Holtz is more eager to battle for the puck and is stronger on the puck.
He, Karlsson and Smith led 10-0 in shot attempts and 5-0 in scoring chances in 2:49 before Cassidy shuffled the lines, moving Mark Stone to the Karlsson unit.
The Golden Knights never trailed again, but that didn’t mean the Predators didn’t make things interesting.
It was none other than Marchessault, who has not forgotten how to score goals in T-Mobile Arena, who came up with a clutch play to get Nashville back in the game. His 20th of the year made it a one-goal game just 62 seconds into the third period.
Marchessault received a decent cheer from the crowd when he scored but later joked that he’s never heard it so quiet in The Fortress after one of his goals.
Four minutes later, the Predators evened things up on a goal that deflected off the head of Marc Del Gaizo.
The Golden Knights only allowed two shots the rest of the way, but the game remained tied at 3-3 until the final two minutes of regulation, when the Karlsson line put together a great shift to turn the tide.
The puck eventually made its way to Zach Whitecloud, who fed it along the blue line to Hanifin for the one-timer. Hanifin’s 10th of the year and first in 16 games beat Annunen at 18:05 to give Vegas the late lead and proved to be the game-winner.
“I think we had a good O-zone shift there, a couple good looks,” Hanifin said. “I knew the time on the clock, just tried to get the puck to the net. That’s something we’ve been focusing on as a D corps, just getting more shots from the blue line, and fortunately we got one by them.”
Nashville pulled Annunen to set up a 6-on-5, but Barbashev won a race and scored on the empty net to ice the 5-3 win.
The Golden Knights needed a regulation win to lock up the division, something they’ve worked towards for 80 games. They delivered.
“I thought we were consistent all year,” Howden said. “We started the year really well, and then obviously there’s a lot of ups and downs, but I thought whenever injuries or anything happened, we had guys step up. We even have some key guys out right now and got the job done. It’s an exciting sign to see that we can do that, and when we get everyone healthy and ready to go, we’ll be excited for it.”
Blowing a two-goal lead in the third period was not ideal, but the Golden Knights never yielded control and were able to overcome the setback.
“Do we want to give up a two-goal lead right out of the gate to start the third?” Cassidy asked. “Of course not. Another team might not let you off the hook if you do that. We have to be careful with that. But every team in this league is good. If you don’t play the right way, I don’t care who you’re playing — a team that’s eliminated, first place, whatever — they’re gonna make you pay. We got a wakeup call there in the third, but I thought we started getting to our game better.”
Hanifin said it’s a good test for what’s to come.
“I think it’s good to be in those situations this time of year. That’s what’s going to happen in the playoffs. You’re going to deal with some adversity. You’re going to have tie games in the third period. I think this group knows how to handle those situations really well, and I think we did a good job of it, just not getting too worried when they tied that up. We just kept playing our game all the way down to the final couple minutes, and we got it done.”
With the Kings on their heels, the Golden Knights ended up winning both games in the final homestand of the regular season after defeating Seattle 2-1 on Thursday.
“That was our goal coming back home for these few games; we wanted to get the wins just so we could clinch the division,” Hanifin said.
The resulting four points earned them the Pacific Division crown, something the franchise has now accomplished four times in eight seasons and twice in Cassidy’s three-year tenure.
“I was asked this morning what I thought one of the great qualities of our team was,” Cassidy said, “and I thought it was our resilience, our willingness to push back and keep playing, no matter what. … Our guys are winners in there, and they’re competitive. Doesn’t mean they’re gonna win every night, but they know when they need to raise their level. In the playoffs, it’s gotta be done quicker. The level has to go up and for longer. Those are the teams that move on. They’ve been through it, so that’ll be the challenge in front of us.”
But the Golden Knights are not getting ahead of themselves.
“[Winning the division] is obviously an accomplishment,” Howden said. “You play for that the whole year. We’re excited that we were able to do that and clinch that, but there’s no celebrating here. We know how much work is ahead of us. We’ve been there, we’ve done it. It’s awesome, it’s great, but at the end of the day, we know there’s a lot more work ahead.”
The Golden Knights will finish the regular season with a 29-9-3 record on home ice, where they will open the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs next week against Minnesota, St. Louis or Calgary.
“I think we’re all very excited about playoff time and playing in front of the crowd here at home next week,” Hanifin said. “Great job by the team all year. Everybody bought in. Great depth on the team: four lines three pairs, good goaltending. It takes everybody to do what we did; now it’s time for all the fun.”
But Vegas has two games remaining in the regular season and will hit the road for another back-to-back against Calgary and Vancouver.
Cassidy expects to use those games to try some new things that could be beneficial in the playoffs, but he said the focus is on getting healthy. With Jack Eichel, Alex Pietrangelo, Nicolas Hague, Victor Olofsson and Ilya Samsonov out of the lineup, the Golden Knights can’t afford to lose anyone in games that have no bearing on their place in the standings.
But one thing that Saturday’s win demonstrated is the significance of depth scoring, which will be of paramount importance moving forward against a deep Western Conference. Depth scoring was an essential factor in Vegas’ success during the 2023 Stanley Cup run, and it will need to be moving forward.
However, one key piece missing from that Stanley Cup team will be the fan favorite and Conn Smythe winner, though Marchessault expressed confidence in his former team.
“I think they have a great chance,” he said after the game. “I don’t see anyone stopping them until the top four, personally. I think they’re gonna get out of their division. It’s gonna be a pretty good battle against the Central Division. I think there’s three really good teams. I’ll follow them and cheer for them, for sure.”
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick