Moments create a patina that covers a franchise. A reputation, for good or bad, is what’s left for the world to see.
Sunday night’s 5-3 comeback win over the Colorado Avalanche left its mark on the Vegas Golden Knights. Fans of the VGK will never forget Sunday. It will go down as one of the most improbable but glorious victories in the history of the franchise.
The enormity of the moment, the quality of the opponent, and the win’s place in a playoff run that leaves the team just one more victory from its third trip to the Stanley Cup Final in nine years as members of the NHL are difficult to encapsulate. So are these Golden Knights.
Vegas head coach John Tortorella did his best with blunt honesty and familiar brevity.
“This is a game where we showed some balls,” said Tortorella.
Heading into the game with a 2-0 series lead, the Golden Knights knew the Avalanche would be desperate. Colorado finished the regular season with more points than any team in the NHL and was the favorite heading into the Western Conference Final. On Sunday, they had to be at their best. Everyone knew it.
For the opening 20 minutes, that’s just what the Avalanche were: fast, efficient, and precise. They built a 3-0 lead on goals from Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, and Jack Drury. It looked like they had finally staked a claim in this series.
The only problem for Colorado at this moment was the clock. There was too much left on it. 40 minutes remained, and the guys in the dressing room down the hall, the Vegas Golden Knights, weren’t ready to quit. They weren’t ready to retreat to fight another day. Instead, there was will, defiance, and belief.
Vegas captain Mark Stone, who returned for this game after missing five straight due to an undisclosed injury, made the first slash in Colorado’s veneer with a power-play goal just 19 seconds into the middle frame. Hold on a minute here; 3-1 isn’t insurmountable.
The crowd at The Fortress on the Strip started to rumble a bit. Maybe there’s a chance?
A bit less than four minutes later, it was William Karlsson, who missed six months with injury and hadn’t scored a goal in almost seven months, pulling the fans out of their seats with a dart of a shot from the slot to get it to 3-2.
Are we going to witness something special? Should we invest some hope into this game? The rumble grew and was now a roar.
Eight minutes and 41 seconds later, the building broke into a cacophony of relief, joy and madness as Keegan Kolesar crashed the net and deftly tucked the puck into the net. What is happening? It’s 3-3, and we have a brand-new hockey game with over one period left to play.
With a win still hanging in the balance and available for both teams to grab, the third period began. Back and forth.
Then, at the 8:21 mark of the third period, Tomas Hertl scored one of the biggest goals in franchise history. A heads-up pass from the defensive blue line off the stick of Kaedan Korczak, combined with a soft but smart deflection pass from Mark Stone, sprung Hertl into the slot. From there, the big Czech pulled a backhand slapper out of his quiver that stunned goalie Scott Wedgewood, the Avs bench and likely the entire state of Colorado.
In the arena, it was bedlam. Hertl threw himself against the glass to celebrate with the Vegas faithful, his team erupted on the bench, and a three-goal deficit was now, unbelievably, a 4-3 Vegas lead.
The Avs tried to push, but after allowing three in the first, Golden Knights goalie Carter Hart was unbeatable. Brett Howden added an empty-net goal, his 10th marker of the postseason, and the win was sealed. Vegas 5, Colorado 3.
With a 3-0 lead in the series, the Golden Knights now need one more win to get to the final round and a chance to win their second Stanley Cup in team history.
To win at this time of year, a team must believe. Colorado entered the series believing they were the best team in the NHL. They had earned that belief.
But the Golden Knights had confidence of their own. Tortorella’s greatest trick so far has been to once again instill confidence in this team. To make them understand “how good they are” was one of the first jobs he tackled. The firebrand needed to sell his team on themselves.
The regular season matters. It’s what gets a team to the playoffs, but it’s not defining.
Vegas has gone 18-4-1 under Tortorella since he took over behind the bench with eight games left in the regular season. The Golden Knights have a +37 goal differential over that span, which is No. 1 in the NHL.
What do the Avalanche believe this morning? I can’t tell you that. But the Golden Knights believe they are the best team in the Western Conference and want a chance to find out if they are the greatest team in the world.
See you Tuesday night.
