Prior to last night, the Vegas Golden Knights had never closed out a playoff series on home ice. Last night, that changed as the Knights put in 6 goals on the Wild and Vegas’ Marc Andre Fleury only allowed 2 goals while stopping 18 shots on goal. Vegas Center Mattias Janmark (#26) had a hat trick after throwing in an empty net goal with 3:07 left in the 3rd period to give the Knights a 4 goal lead. Minnesota gave Vegas all they had after being down 3-1 in the series and ultimately taking it to game 7 was extremely impressive. Game 7 started with Janmark scoring on a crazy play that resulted in a breakaway and Minnesota’s Zach Parise responded with a sweet goal of his own to tie things up at 1. Here is a clip of each goal…
Once things were tied up at 1, Vegas’ Nicolas Hague broke the tie 2:05 into the 2nd period which was answered quickly by Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov just 2 minutes and 30 seconds later. The next goal proved to be a turning point and Vegas put on the heat as Max Pacioretty scored 7:44 into the 2nd to make it 3-2 and from this point on Vegas maintained complete control of the game. Janmark scored late in the 3rd period to complete his 1st ever hat trick and send the Knights into the 2nd round of the playoffs to play the high-powered Colorado Avalanche!
This Knights and Avalanche series will be a great one to watch in the 2nd round as both teams are Stanley Cup caliber! Colorado has had a lot of time to rest since sweeping the St. Louis Blues in round 1 so expect them to come out flying. This series has 7 games written all over it!
Kuzi Sportz 