Avalanche vs. Golden Knights Game 1: Key takeaways as Vegas takes over in second period

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Bednar equated it to the last week of summer, when he’s trying to get his messaging together for the start of training camp. It can be even more stressful and more taxing than the series itself. “The excitement is starting to kick in today, because we’re here,” Bednar said before Game 1 at Ball Arena on Wednesday. “But besides that, it’s a lot of work and a lot of sleep.” Well, Bednar and his staff have plenty more work to do. Vegas withstood an early barrage and then completely took over, defeating the top-seeded Avalanche 4-2 and wresting home-ice advantage away. Game 2 is on Friday in Denver. After a tense first 30 minutes, the Knights started to tilt the ice midway through the second. And when Dylan Coghlan beat Scott Wedgewood between the legs from the high slot at 12:29 of the first to give Vegas a 1-0 lead — Coghlan’s first NHL goal since Dec. 17, 2021 — the Knights were in full control. Pavel Dorofeyev scored his postseason-leading 10th goal just after, burying a beautiful Mitch Marner feed for a power-play tally and a 2-0 lead. Brett Howden then scored his ninth goal of the postseason — he had just 12 in the regular season — shortly after a successful Vegas penalty kill when he batted down a Ben Hutton rebound and got his stick on it before it crossed the goal line. Valeri Nichushkin woke up the crowd with a goal at 5:53 of the third, going between his own legs to knock in a Ross Colton centering feed, and Gabriel Landeskog put in a Nathan MacKinnon feed for a power-play goal with 2:21 to go to cut the lead to one, but unlike in Game 5 against the Minnesota Wild in the second round, the three-goal deficit proved too steep a hill for Colorado to climb. Nic Dowd beat out an icing call to bury an empty-netter with 44.5 seconds left. Vegas, without injured star winger Mark Stone, spent the first five minutes of the game scrambling just to get out of its own end. But Colorado, without injured star defenseman Cale Makar, couldn’t sustain the pressure, with too many one-and-dones in the offensive zone, and too many transition chances going the other way. Vegas’ stout team defense held the high-octane Avalanche in check, blocking 22 shots and slowing them down through the neutral zone. Three of Colorado’s best chances in the first two periods came from fourth-line winger Logan O’Connor — not what you’re looking for from a team with MacKinnon, Martin Nečas and perhaps the deepest forward roster in the league. Carter Hart made 36 saves for Vegas, including a terrific stop of a Nazem Kadri power-play shot at the first-period horn. Wedgewood was sharp early, stopping a Keegan Kolesar breakaway and kicking aside a tricky Tomáš Hertl shot two minutes later. It wasn’t short-handed this time, but Howden scored yet another pivotal playoff goal for the Golden Knights early in the third period. The play came at the end of a penalty-killing shift for Howden, when the puck bounced straight to Hutton as he exited the penalty box. Howden raced up the ice to join Hutton on a two-on-one rush. Hutton’s shot was blocked by Wedgewood, but Howden knocked the puck out of the air with his glove and tapped it across the goal line with his stick for the highlight-reel tally. It was Howden’s ninth goal of the playoffs, which is second in the NHL behind only his teammate, Dorofeyev. Of those, three have come short-handed, which is tied for the most in a single postseason with seven other players, including Wayne Gretzky. Coghlan opened the scoring with the first playoff goal of his NHL career, beating Wedgewood five-hole with a snap shot from the mid slot. Not only was it his first postseason goal, but it was his first NHL goal of any kind in more than four years. Coghlan last scored on Dec. 17, 2021, for the Golden Knights. He played for two different teams, the Carolina Hurricanes and Winnipeg Jets, between his two goals for Vegas, which came 1,615 days apart. The 28-year-old defenseman spent the majority of the season playing for Vegas’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights. He played only three regular-season games in the NHL before John Tortorella inserted him into the lineup during the second-round series against Anaheim. He has slotted into Vegas’ bottom defensive pair over each of the last five games, replacing Kaedan Korczak. “I don’t think he’s nervous about anything,” Tortorella said before the game of Coghlan. “He’s not afraid to step up and gap. He’s not afraid to surf. He makes plays with pucks. He just doesn’t throw them away.” Coghlan made several big plays for Vegas in the second round against Anaheim, but none more crucial than his opening goal against Colorado. The Avalanche, bafflingly given their talent, had the 27th-best power play in the league during the regular season. They scored at a healthy 25 percent clip through the first two rounds, but Vegas had the clear special-teams edge in Game 1. The Knights got the Dorofeyev power-play goal and killed off both Colorado power plays, with Howden’s goal coming moments after the kill had ended. Remarkably, Vegas has played its opponents to a 4-4 draw when short-handed in this postseason. The Avs’ power play made its mark, but it was too late. MacKinnon danced around Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb in the corner, then fed a backdoor pass to Gabriel Landeskog, who buried the shot to cut Vegas’ lead to 3-2 with just over two minutes to play. Stone skated with the Golden Knights during Wednesday’s optional morning skate at Ball Arena, but remained out of the lineup for Game 1. The Vegas captain hasn’t played since leaving Game 3 of the second-round series against Anaheim. He had three goals and four assists in nine playoff games before the injury. “It’s always a next-man-up mentality,” Kolesar said. “With guys like him, it’s hard to do that, but guys took it upon themselves last series, like Mitch (Marner) and Pavel (Dorofeyev), pulled their socks up and helped contribute in the offensive department with his absence.” On the other bench, the Avalanche were without Makar in Game 1. The Norris Trophy finalist left Game 5 of the second-round series against Minnesota after a hit late in the game, but returned for the end of that contest. He also skated prior to Wednesday’s morning skate on his own, but wasn’t able to suit up for the opening game of the conference finals. Bednar said he expects Makar to return at some point, listing him as day-to-day. Devon Toews filled Makar’s spot on Colorado’s top power-play unit. Toews and Josh Manson were the top duo on the penalty kill in Makar’s absence. Jack Ahcan got the call on Colorado’s bottom pair for his third career playoff appearance. Unsurprisingly, he played the fewest minutes of any Avalanche defender, and was on the ice for Vegas’ opening goal in the second period. The Avalanche had an hour-long practice on Tuesday and followed it up with a full morning skate on Wednesday. It might be the last time either of these teams practice this series. With all games starting at 6 p.m. local time or earlier to accommodate East Coast fans, there might not be another morning skate. And with the every-other-night game schedule, there likely won’t be time for practices. And that’s not a problem for either coach. “No, no, the work’s done that way,” Tortorella said. “My gosh, no. We’ll leave it up to the players. There’ll be ice available, as with (Stone and the other scratches) this morning. With the start times, it’s kind of a funky time, so we won’t be practicing. No need.” Veteran teams tend to practice less often than younger teams, anyway. And eight months into the season, with just about every player banged up in some way, rest is sure to win out over practice on the off days. That doesn’t mean players won’t be working on the off days, it just means that the real work is done in video sessions at this stage of the postseason. “Our guys like it, actually,” Bednar said. “You get what you need, you know? And we’ve kind of been in that mode for quite a while — lots of optionals, sometimes it’s double optionals, like an optional on the off day, optional on the morning skate. Some guys will choose to go out and skate the day before, some guys (will take) a day off, some guys don’t go at all, and some guys go twice. It’s just kind of personal preference, I think most of the work is done individually to get yourself ready, rested, recovered to get ready to play. And then the video sessions that you’re going over stuff that can be important for the game.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms