The Vegas Golden Knights (38-26-16) extended their point streak to a season-high nine games and collected two more points in the Pacific Division race with a 6-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets (35-33-12) Monday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Six different players lit the lamp for the Golden Knights, who scored four times in the third period to take care of the Jets in game No. 81 of the regular season.
The Golden Knights are 6-0-1 since making the coaching change and need just one more point to clinch the Pacific Division.
Carter Hart won his fifth straight start since returning from injury, turning aside 21 of 23 shots for a .913 save percentage. Jack Eichel led the team with four points, including his first power-play goal of the season, and Mark Stone scored a goal and added two assists.
The Golden Knights had two power plays in the first period and led 10-3 in shots but were unable to beat Connor Hellebuyck.
However, they made the most of an eventful, penalty-filled second period, scoring once shorthanded and again shortly after the expiration of a power play to take a 2-0 lead into the second intermission.
Stone scored shorthanded when he and Eichel broke in on a 2-on-1 at 7:38 of the middle frame. A fortunate bounce off the skate of an official helped set up the play, but the captain made it count.
The Golden Knights doubled their lead on Reilly Smith’s 14th of the year. The goal came seconds after one of Vegas’ power plays had expired, as Smith deflected a point shot by Noah Hanifin with 1:06 remaining in the period.
The third period was a goal-fest early on, with both teams combining for four goals in the first five minutes.
Vegas kicked things off when Ivan Barbashev found twine just 31 seconds in. Eichel made an exceptional backhand pass (à la Evgeny Kuznetsov) from behind the net to set up a wide-open Barbashev for his 23rd of the campaign.
But Winnipeg responded courtesy of Gabriel Vilardi’s 30th of the season. On their fifth power play of the night, the Jets finally cashed in on the man-advantage after the Golden Knights broke a stick, which cut the deficit to two.
But Rasmus Andersson then potted his 17th of the year just 63 seconds later to restore Vegas’ three-goal lead.
The see-saw action continued when Mark Scheifele beat Hart on the rebound to cut the Golden Knights’ lead to two once again, setting a franchise record for most points in a single season.
However, Scheifele got his stick up on Andersson at 5:05, triggering a four-minute power play for Vegas.
The Golden Knights capitalized on the opportunity. Twice.
First, Pavel Dorofeyev recorded his 37th goal and 20th power-play goal of the year as the top unit finally broke through.
Then, Eichel recorded his fourth point of the game with his 27th goal of the season. Notably, it was his first power-play strike of the year, and it put Vegas ahead by four with 12:22 remaining.
With the comfortable four-goal advantage, the Golden Knights were able to close out the 6-2 victory without much fanfare.
The Golden Knights are playing some of their best hockey of the season, and it couldn’t be coming at a better time.
After earning 13 of a possible 14 points under their new bench boss, the Golden Knights now control their destiny and need just one point in their season finale against Seattle to lock up the Pacific Division and home-ice advantage through at least the first round. There were moments a few weeks ago when it wasn’t clear if the Golden Knights could hold on to a playoff slot, let alone compete to win the division.
But things have changed, and a significant piece of that has been the stark improvement in goaltending.
Hart won his fifth straight start since returning from injury and has emerged as Vegas’ true No. 1 starter. He has been a godsend for the Golden Knights, and he turned out another solid performance Monday night against the Jets.
“I feel solid,” Hart said. “Seeing the puck well, taking things one game at a time, one shot at a time. Not trying to get too ahead of myself here.”
Hart’s familiarity with Tortorella has helped his confidence.
“I got a long with Torts really well in Philly,” Hart said. “I’m familiar with his style of coaching, his day-to-day process, how he does things. … He’s a good coach, a smart hockey man, and he brings the best out of players. And I think the guys have responded really well to him.”
Hart, who has maintained a .925 save percentage over his last five starts, looks sharp, calm and poised in net, which is a huge turn of events for the Golden Knights, who did not have reliable goaltending for most of the season.
“I think he looks dialed in,” Tortorella said about Hart. “I just think he’s making saves. He just looks confident. Hopefully that’ll continue. And [Adin Hill’s] last couple starts, I think he’s made some really good saves also. Going into the playoffs, if both of them are going well, I think that’s a good thing for us.”
The coaching change has served Vegas well.
“I think [Tortorella is] just a guy that holds guys accountable, demands a lot from guys,” Hart said. “All of us have held each other accountable and have turned things around. [Torts] is an honest man. He keeps things pretty simple, in black and white. We’ve got a veteran group here, and they’ve responded really well to him.”
Tonight was a true battle of special teams, with a total of 12 power plays between the two clubs.
“It seemed like the whole second period was a special-teams practice,” Eichel said. “Credit to the penalty kill. Obviously, we gave up that one, we break a stick. But we had a lot of big kills at big moments. We get that double-minor when [Andersson] catches a high stick, and we’re able to score a couple and kind of put the game away.
“Special teams are a big part of the game, and it’s something that we continue to focus more and more on. You need to be good down the stretch, especially your penalty kill, and it helped us tonight. It was good to see.”
Clearly, the Golden Knights won the battle on both fronts.
The penalty kill was excellent, limiting the Jets to just one goal on five opportunities, and a broken stick was the primary culprit behind that goal against. The second period was a penalty-riddled frame, but the Golden Knights weathered the storm and ended up scoring the only goal in a stretch where Winnipeg had three straight power plays.
“Key thing is staying focused [with so many penalties], and they did,” Tortorella said of the Golden Knights. “Thought we did a good job killing penalties at an important time of game, and just played.”
That being said, Vegas will need to be much more disciplined in the playoffs. Nic Dowd has been particularly guilty in this department since coming over in a trade from Washington. He took an unnecessary penalty on the forecheck in the offensive zone, and while it didn’t cost Vegas against the Jets, that kind of carelessness in the playoffs is usually back-breaking. Even with an excellent penalty kill, giving an opponent five power plays is not a recipe for success.
On the flip side, the power play also played a role in the win.
“I think sometimes we try to pass the puck into the net,” Tortorella said. “I think their mindset was good as far as if there were shots to be taken, we took them. … We’re trying to sift more pucks to the net and not over-pass.”
The Golden Knights scored twice on the man-advantage, with both goals coming at a critical moment in the third period. The Jets refused to go away and had two goals on just three shots early in the frame, but Vegas capitalized on the four-minute power play, striking twice to put a stranglehold on the game.
In the third period, the top power-play unit looked much more dangerous than it has in some time, which is a good sign for the Golden Knights moving forward. It’s still not clicking the way it was earlier in the season, but if Dorofeyev can get going, that would be a massive boost for Vegas.
The top players stepped up for the Golden Knights tonight, with Eichel and Stone combining for seven points. Andersson continues to excel on the blue line, and it was another team-wide effort for the Golden Knights.
Once again, Tortorella leaned heavily on Andersson, who trailed only Hanifin (20:28) in ice time tonight with 20:10, though that was partly due to the fact that he had to go to the dressing room for repairs after taking Scheifele’s stick up high.
Tortorella said Andersson reminds him of Dan Boyle, whom he coached when Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup in 2004.
“I think [Andersson] has some swagger to him,” Tortorella said. “He’s not afraid to take a chance. He’s pinching down the walls, he’s up the ice, his gaps are good. … We wanted [the Hanifin-Andersson pair] to work here. Right now they seem to feel comfortable with one another, and I think [Andersson’s] gaining some confidence.”
The Golden Knights currently occupy the top seed in the Pacific Division, with Edmonton trailing by two points and Anaheim down by three. At worst, Vegas will finish second in the Pacific, though the Golden Knights have had their sights set on the division since the start of the season, according to Eichel.
“Every game, you want to play your best right now,” he said. “We want to try to win our division, and that was our goal at the beginning of our season, so we have another game left. … You want to stay [at home], you want to start at home in front of our fans in the playoffs. We have the opportunity to do that, we just have to go out there and win hockey games.”
All 16 playoff teams have been confirmed as of Monday, with Philadelphia clinching in the East and Los Angeles clinching in the West. With the Oilers falling in a shootout to Colorado, the Golden Knights are in complete control of their destiny. They will wrap up the regular season Wednesday against the Kraken, who will look to play spoiler.
“We gotta take each day at a time, keep building our game,” Tortorella said. “We have one more regular season game. Hopefully we’re playing our best hockey as we head into the playoffs.”
Tortorella knows the Golden Knights are a really good hockey team, but he said the only thing that matters is that the players believe in themselves.
“I just think it’s a really good hockey team,” he said. “The biggest thing is them. Do they believe they’re a really good hockey team? Belief is a strong thing. … If the room doesn’t believe that, then there’s some hiccups. I think they’re joining together at the right time here, and I think they have a strong belief that they can play. So hopefully that’ll continue and bring us to our next game and then get ready for the real stuff.”
Photo courtesy of the Golden Knights