They saved their best for last and what a 60 minutes it was. Say this for the Vegas Golden Knights in these Stanley Cup playoffs: They sure have shown up at the most significant of times.
It happened. And it was incredible.
The Knights on Tuesday night swept the Colorado Avalanche out of this postseason with a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of a Western Conference Final best-of-seven series at T-Mobile Arena.
What it means: The Knights have now advanced to their third Stanley Cup Final in nine seasons, where they will play the winner of an Eastern Conference Final between Carolina and Montreal.
What it means: The Knights took what was by far the best team in the regular season and sent them home in the most impressive of manners.
What it means: They held Colorado, the talented, fast, so explosive Colorado, to seven goals in four games.
And the Knights finished things off with their best game of the series. Their best team defensive effort. Their best of everything.
Four wins away
“We checked our assess off, that’s what stands out to me,” Knights coach John Tortorella said. “You win in this league by checking. It’s something we’ve been concentrating on, and I think we’ve gotten better and better at.
“That’s a hell of a hockey team we played. I was very nervous. We knew how we’d have to play because it’s such a potent team. That’s a great organization. A great team.We found a way to win. It was such a close series, we just found a way to make another play.”
So here they are, the Golden Knights a couple months after hiring Tortorella to replace Bruce Cassidy, four wins from lifting the Stanley Cup for a second time.
You can’t overstate how huge a series this was in terms of how the Knights competed and executed. How they were able to beat such a dangerous opponent.
“You don’t take it for granted,” forward Cole Smith said. “They’re a great team. But credit to everybody in this locker room that we were able to get it done. It’s pretty cool, and it’s pretty special.”
If the first three games were mostly about how good Carter Hart was in goal for the Knights — and he was terrific the entire series — this clincher was about how well everyone in front of him played.
It was a total team effort to win and move on.
“Obviously, it’s super exciting right now, but we have a lot of work to do still,” Hart said. “Prepare for the next game. We have such a tight group here.
“I mean, the hardest games to win in a series are always the last one to close it out. Kudos to (Colorado). They played hard and battled through some injuries. But we stuck with our game and got a huge win. Just happy to get the series win and move onto the next round.”
How appropriate that fourth-liner Smith scored the game-winning goal. It shows again the depth of this team, how much faith Tortorella has in those up and down his roster.
It definitely has the makings of a side that can win four more games when you combine that depth scoring and goaltending and defensive structure.
Whoever emerges from the East might be favored (hey, so was Colorado by a large margin), but there is every chance their hands will be full dealing with this particular Knights team.
The fun part
“They played really well and made it super difficult for us to create quality looks and when we did, (Hart) made the saves,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We ran into a buzz saw. They’re a really good hockey team and won and deserve the credit. It’s not a knock on our guys. We just didn’t find enough solutions to what they were doing.”
What they did was outplay the best team in hockey and summarily sweep them out of these playoffs.
What they did was save their best for last. An incredible 60 minutes that delivered the Knights back to a Stanley Cup Final.
It took an exemplary effort to pull this off and they responded.
Hey, are you ready?
Now comes the fun part.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
