After his team completed a surprising four-game sweep of the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference finals with a 2-1 victory on Tuesday, Vegas Golden Knights coach John Tortorella was already looking ahead to the team’s third Stanley Cup Final in nine seasons.
“Now the real stuff starts,” Tortorella said. “I consider the first three round playoffs. Now we’re playing for the Stanley Cup.”
Mark Stone and Cole Smith scored goals and Carter Hart made 20 saves for Vegas, which won its sixth straight postseason game. The Golden Knights will vie for the championship against the winner of the Eastern Conference finals, either the Carolina Hurricanes or the Montreal Canadiens.
The Golden Knights lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Washington Capitals in five games in their inaugural season in 2018 before defeating the Florida Panthers in five games to win the 2023 title.
The Avalanche, who finished the regular season with a league-best 121 points, became the fifth Presidents’ Trophy-winning team to get swept in a playoff series. They were outscored 14-7 by Vegas.
“I didn’t think we’d win four straight against these guys, but when you have a chance to put them away, you have to put them away,” Stone said. “So that was a big one tonight.”
Vegas center Jack Eichel added, “We should be really proud with what we did and what we accomplished so far. That being said, the ultimate goal is to hoist the Stanley Cup. We still have to win four more games. We have a veteran group, and I think we understand that.”
Gabriel Landeskog scored a 6-on-5 goal with 2:03 left for Colorado’s lone goal.
“It’s empty,” Landeskog said. “It always is, whether you lose in seven, six, five or four (games), it’s an empty feeling. It sucks. There’s no other way to put it.”
No Presidents’ Trophy recipient has reached the Stanley Cup Final since the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks won the championship.
Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood finished with 24 saves. Blackwood, making his series debut, entered the contest with a 0-4-1 career record and a 3.63 goals-against average against Vegas but kept the Avalanche in the game with a number of blue-chip saves.
Nathan MacKinnon, who led the NHL with 53 regular-season goals and was questionable after taking a puck off his right knee in Game 3 on Sunday, led all Avalanche forwards with 22:10 time on ice and had two shots on goal.
Vegas, which scored five unanswered goals over the final two periods to pull out a 5-3 victory in Game 3 on Sunday, made it six consecutive goals when Stone scored at the 4:42 mark of the first period.
Brayden McNabb picked up the primary assist, lobbing a long stretch pass that Stone caught just before the blue line. Stone then went in on a breakaway, deking Blackwood and wrapping a shot around the goalie’s left leg for his fifth goal of the playoffs.
Colorado had a good chance to tie it near the end of the period when Brock Nelson had a breakaway, but Hart made a glove save on his wrist shot.
Vegas took charge in a scoreless second period, outshooting the Avalanche 11-6, including a couple grade-A chances by Pavel Dorofeyev on a power play near the end of the period that Blackwood turned away. Colorado didn’t register a shot on goal over the final 14 minutes of the period.
Smith made it 2-0 with 5:45 to go in the third period when he deflected Dylan Coghlan’s shot through Blackwood’s pads for his third playoff goal and the game-winner.
Colorado pulled Blackwood for an extra attacker with 2:15 remaining, and Landeskog scored just 18 seconds later, deflecting a Martin Necas shot in the slot over Hart’s shoulder.
The Avalanche pulled Blackwood again shortly after the ensuing faceoff but managed just one shot the rest of the way, a slap shot by MacKinnon that Hart saved.
“You go from being in the battle and the buzzer goes and the season’s over,” Landeskog said. “It’s a weird feeling to try to describe to people, but empty is probably the way to do it.”
Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, a two-time winner of the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman and a finalist this season, ended the campaign with a six-game point drought. Makar missed the Games 1 and 2 against Vegas while nursing an upper-body injury.
“Obviously, you have a great season. We have a lot of committed guys,” Makar said. “But playoffs are different. It doesn’t matter who you are coming into the playoffs, everybody’s a different beast. We respect teams, you try and go at them, but sometimes you just run into something that feels like you can’t sustain it.”
–Field Level Media
