LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Vegas Golden Knights have officially punched their ticket to playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons.
On Friday night, they defeated the Minnesota Wild 7-2 to secure their spot. In addition to that, Tomas Hertl scored his first goal as a Golden Knight, Chandler Stephenson had four assists, and 13 players had at least one point. Vegas is the second wild card in the Western Conference, one point behind the Los Angeles Kings for third place in the Pacific Division.
"You don't want to be or say that you were stressed, but we knew we had to win a game and we felt confident about that tonight," Stephenson said after the game. "It's a little bit of a different year and the work starts now. You don't even really remember the lows as much. You obviously learn from them but you don't dwell on them. It's lighter in the room and you can focus on playoffs now."
What do we know about playoff tickets?
After the game, the team announced plans for the first round playoff home games. The opponents, dates, and times for the games will be determined after the National Hockey League's regular season wraps up.
As part of their annual membership agreement, VGK Full Season Ticket Members will automatically retain their season ticket locations for every home playoff game played at T-Mobile Arena. VGK Season Ticket Members received detailed information on first-round playoff ticket pricing, additional first-round ticket purchase options and parking on Friday night from their Membership Services Account Executive, according to the team.
Team officials said following a series of full and partial member presale opportunities, a limited number of single-game tickets for the first round playoff series will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, April 16 at 10 a.m. at vegasgoldenknights.com. If you buy tickets for games that are not played, they will be refunded within 10-14 business days.
You can learn more here.
How is the team getting ready?
William Karlsson said the team learned they were going to playoffs during one of the intermissions in Friday's game.
"We are pretty happy guys," Karlsson said after the game. "The boys were hungry. We still have a few more games to try to collect more points and get ready."
On Saturday, head coach Bruce Cassidy said the team can use the last three games in the regular season to tighten up their game.
"Our game's not going to change a ton [based] on the opponent. We have to play a certain way to be successful. I think after game one, you sort of see, okay, what their plan is. How can we tilt this in our favor in certain areas," Cassidy said. "We got to play to our strengths, manage the puck, get it out of our end, closing the D zone, defend the blue line ... those are all part of our game. We want to keep building so it's second-nature when it starts and we bring that part of our game so they adjust to us."
He added the home ice factor won't matter.
"We've got to win on the road sooner or later anyway. We lost home ice in the first game last year against Winnipeg," Cassidy explained. "That, to me, it's nice to have it, probably, as the series goes on and when you maybe have game seven at home. That can be an advantage. We didn't get to a game seven so that didn't come into play either. I don't think it will affect us much. I think it's more of a where's your game at, where's the health of your team, can you win on the road. This team proved they can win on the road."
Speaking of health, the Vegas Golden Knights have faced several challenges over the past couple of months with injuries to players like Mark Stone and Adin Hill. However, Cassidy said every team has to overcome that to find ways to win.
"There's a part of you, in every coach in the league right now, that has their fingers crossed behind their back that they don't lose a player through a blocked shot or an unfortunate hit or something."
Nicolas Roy returned to the lineup on Friday night after missing three games with an injury. On Saturday, he told Channel 13 he's planning on using the rest of the regular season to pick up his pace.
"For me personally, I missed a couple of games there. I felt good yesterday but my timing's not quite there. In playoffs, the pace is faster. I just need to get my timing back," Roy said. "I think we battled a lot this year with injuries and everything that happened. It's fun to be in. Now, we have three games to prepare for it."
On Saturday, fans packed City National Arena in Summerlin. Keegan Kolesar and Cassidy both said it's great to see the community support and they hope to make Vegas proud.
"It lets you know the community is following along," Kolesar said smiling. "They're excited."
"To see the growth here ... I read something like there's a 400% growth since the Knights came to town so you're getting grassroots. You're getting young kids playing. I was in Henderson this week for certain tryouts and seeing the passionate fan base, I love it," Cassidy said. "I'm a Canadian who loves hockey. I love to see it spread everywhere, as far as it can go. I'm happy to see our support."
Milestones
- Jonathan Marchessault scored his team-leading 42nd goal on Friday night. That's one goal shy of the Golden Knights record for most in a season, set by Karlsson in 2017-2018.
- Friday marked Stephenson's third four-assist game of the season. He is now tied with Mark Stone for the most in franchise history.
- Jack Eichel's goal on Friday night was his 30th of the season. Vegas now has two 30-goal scorers in the same season for the first time in franchise history. Marchessault has 42 so far this season.
- Roy scored the fastest shorthanded goal from the start of a game in franchise history on Friday night. He passed Karlsson (6:18 on March 30, 2018).
