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DENVER — In a thrilling start to the Western Conference Final, the Vegas Golden Knights secured a 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night, thanks to a standout performance from Dylan Coghlan and a stellar goaltending effort by Carter Hart.
Coghlan, who has been stepping up due to Jeremy Lauzon’s recent injury, netted his first playoff goal to kick off the scoring for Vegas. This marked his first NHL goal since December 17, 2021. The Golden Knights’ triumph was also bolstered by Hart, who impressively stopped 36 shots on goal.
Despite being down 3-0 in the third period, the Avalanche mounted a spirited comeback, narrowing the gap to 3-2 following a power-play goal by Gabriel Landeskog with just over two minutes left on the clock. However, Vegas managed to hold their ground, with Nic Dowd securing the win by scoring an empty-net goal with 44.5 seconds remaining.
Contributing to the Golden Knights’ offensive efforts were Pavel Dorofeyev and Brett Howden, who capitalized on Colorado’s defensive lapses. The Avalanche’s defensive struggles were exacerbated by the absence of Cale Makar, who was out due to an upper-body injury, leading to some disarray in their blue-line pairings.
The 28-year-old defenseman spent most of the season in the American Hockey League. He’s played the last five playoff games with the recent injury to Jeremy Lauzon.
It was a smothering performance by the Golden Knights as they kept the pressure on Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood, while controlling the Avalanche’s speed through the neutral zone.
Vegas also had 23 blocked shots.
Valeri Nichushkin had a goal at 5:53 of the third to make it 3-1.
Hart was stellar most of the evening, making one sprawling save after another. He got some help from his post, too, when Logan O’Connor’s liner clanged off it in the first period.
Mitch Marner added an assist for Vegas to give him 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in this postseason. It was Dorofeyev’s league-leading 10th goal of this postseason.
The Golden Knights didn’t have injured captain Mark Stone.
Game 2 is Friday night.
The Avalanche dropped their first game at home after winning five straight through the first two rounds. Wedgewood made 24 saves.
Colorado tried some different combinations without Makar. It led to some confusion, with Coghlan sneaking into the middle of the ice and lining a shot through the pads of Wedgewood to break a scoreless game in the second period.
Coghlan has bounced around over his career, spending his first two seasons with Vegas before stints with Carolina and Winnipeg. He returned to the Golden Knights last July.
The Golden Knights and Avalanche are meeting in a best-of-seven series for the second time. In 2021, Colorado won the opening two games of their second-round series before Vegas captured four straight.