SEATTLE — After lacking the playoffs for the primary time of their quick franchise historical past final 12 months, the Vegas Golden Knights wished to savor this Pacific Division title.
Not for lengthy, although. The Golden Knights imagine there’s extra to return within the postseason.
“I’m definitely proud of the group the way they handled that and came back this year, played a lot of good hockey,” Vegas defenseman Alec Martinez mentioned. “But again, everything with a caveat, we haven’t won anything yet.”
Martinez broke a tie halfway by way of the second interval and the Golden Knights gained their third Pacific Division title with a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken within the regular-season finale Thursday evening.
Vegas completed 51-22-9 with 111 factors, tying the franchise report for victories and holding off the late surge from Edmonton to win the division title and clinch home-ice benefit within the Western Conference.
Vegas will face Winnipeg within the first spherical of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
PHOTOS: Vegas claims Pacific Division crown with 3-1 win over Kraken
“We won all we could win in terms of the regular season,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy mentioned. “We got the division crown, which was I thought was well earned. Edmonton has been charging hard coming out of the break like us. All the teams were playing well around us. And then you get the conference, which is nice too.”
Martinez’s objective at 12:37 of the second interval got here throughout a delayed penalty in opposition to Seattle. Martinez swatted a rebound previous Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer for his third objective of the season and undoubtedly a very powerful.
Reilly Smith additionally scored for Vegas on what technically was its first shot of the sport however didn’t contact his stick blade. Vince Dunn’s move from behind the Seattle objective bounced off Smith’s skate and slipped previous Grubauer. The objective got here almost 10 minutes into the primary interval.
Chandler Stephenson added an empty-net objective, deflecting the puck from his personal zone with 38 seconds left.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I don’t think that this should be understated and make sure that we at least take a day celebrate it,” Smith mentioned.
Jaden Schwartz scored his twenty first of the season for Seattle’s solely objective on an evening the Kraken dominated probabilities however couldn’t convert. Matty Beniers and Adam Larsson each hit posts and Daniel Sprong was stuffed on a breakaway by Laurent Brossoit, who made 31 saves.
Seattle (46-28-8, 100 factors) entered the finale nonetheless with an outdoor shot of catching Los Angeles and ending third within the Pacific Division. But the Kings held up their finish beating Anaheim and the Kraken needed to accept the highest wild card berth within the Western Conference.
“We played pretty damn hard. We had some good looks,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol mentioned. “I thought we could have created maybe a little bit more, mostly in the third period. I thought we worked really hard offensively. We generated enough.”
Seattle must wait till Friday evening to study its playoff opponent. The Kraken will face both Colorado or Dallas relying on the end result of Friday’s sport between the Avalanche and Predators in Nashville.
“Now the fun starts. This is why we play 82 games and this is why we grind throughout the year to give yourself an opportunity,” Schwartz mentioned.
MR. 82 AGAIN
Phil Kessel appeared in his NHL-record 1,064th consecutive sport and performed in 82 video games for the eleventh time in his profession.
Brayden McNabb and William Karlsson additionally appeared in all 82 video games this season for Vegas. Ivan Barbashev additionally appeared in his 82nd sport however the first 59 of these got here with St. Louis.
Larsson was considered one of 5 gamers to seem in all 82 video games for the Kraken and is the one one to play in each sport within the first two seasons of the franchise. Will Borgen, Jordan Eberle, Brandon Tanev and Alex Wennberg additionally appeared in each sport.
WELCOME BACK
Jack Eichel and Shea Theodore each returned for Vegas. Eichel had missed two straight whereas Theodore had missed the earlier seven.
UP NEXT
Golden Knights: Will face Winnipeg in Game 1 subsequent Tuesday. Vegas was 3-0-0 in opposition to the Jets this season.
Kraken: Seattle will play Game 1 at Dallas subsequent Monday or at Colorado subsequent Tuesday relying on Friday’s end result.
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