Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart looked for much of Wednesday night like he was locked in and on his way to his first shutout in what is becoming an impressive playoff run.
He had to settle for a massive 4-2 road victory in Game 1 at Ball Arena in Denver as the Knights struck first in the best-of-seven Western Conference Final.
“We had an emphasis on our start tonight, and I thought we came out hard and just kind of built off that,” he said. “And we know they’re a good team, and they’ve got a lot of talent on their side of the puck, but I thought we played hard and just played our game.”
That was certainly true of Hart, who made 36 saves against the league’s highest-scoring team to help steal the series opener.
“I think tonight, Carter Hart played really good for them,” Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog said.
One of his best stops of the night came in the closing seconds of the first period with the Avalanche on the power play.
Hart slid to his left and made a great save to deny Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri to keep the game scoreless.
“Just kind of was a broken play and bounced over to Kadri,” Hart said. “Then just saw him go for the puck and slid out and made the save.
“You just look at the play and just look at it develop and try to read the game and just try to stop the next puck.”
Carter Hart with a HUGE SAVE at the end of the period to keep it scoreless ❌ pic.twitter.com/cYQCclhuhM
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 21, 2026
The Avalanche finally broke through 5:53 into the third period, but the Knights led 3-0 at that point. Colorado followed up with 2:21 remaining. Hart and the Knights closed the door from there, however, and put the game away with an empty-net goal.
While it was one of Hart’s best games of the playoffs, he credited his teammates.
“Just battle, compete,” he said of the defense in front of him. “We know they’re a team that likes to put pucks to the net, and like I said, we did a good job of getting in lanes and sacrificing the body and just battling to find pucks.”
Hart stopped all 10 shots that got through in the first period, then turned away all 15 in the second period.
“I thought we came out really good in the first period,” Hart said. “We know this is a hard building to play in, and it was huge for us to just get rolling and just to start off the right way and then just build off that.”
The end result was a ninth win of the postseason for Hart, who is playing in just his second playoffs.
His first postseason experience came in the 2020 bubble when he played for current Knights coach John Tortorella in Philadelphia.
Hart’s success is coming as no surprise to his coach.
“Carter Hart is a hell of a goalie,” Tortorella said. “He was great in Philly for me. We’ve got two good ones here. Adin Hill has kind of been put off to the side a little bit, but that’s a guy who just won a Stanley Cup a couple of years ago.
“I just think (Hart) has grown so strong mentally. I don’t think much bothers him. He is just zeroed in and he’s going to have to be because we have a little bit of work to do here.”
Hart believes he’s up to the task. He also has confidence in Tortorella.
“I think he’s done a great job coming in here,” he said. “It’s never easy with coming in so late in the season as he did, and I think he’s done a tremendous job of just rallying the group and earning the guys’ trust. I really enjoy playing for him. I enjoyed playing for him in Philly, and I’m happy he’s here.”
The Knights are pretty happy Hart is, as well.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
