Golden Knights rally in 3rd, defeat Mammoth in Game 1 of West 1st Round

LAS VEGAS -- Mark Stone and Nic Dowd scored 1:47 apart for the Vegas Golden Knights, who rallied in the third period for a 4-2 victory against the Utah Mammoth in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday.

Colton Sissons had a goal and an assist, and Ivan Barbashev also scored for the Golden Knights, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division. Carter Hart made 31 saves.

“It's hard to score goals, it's hard to get shots. You see throughout the League right now, shots are low in a lot of games,” Dowd said. “We’ve got to play what we do well. We're going to consistently try to do the same thing over and over. Some nights you are going to get rewarded, some nights you are not.”

Logan Cooley and Kevin Stenlund scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 27 saves for the Mammoth, who are the first wild card from the West and were playing the first Stanley Cup Playoff game in franchise history.

“It's our first playoff game. To get that under your belt and get settled in, it feels good,” Cooley said. “Obviously, we'd like to get the win, but just to get your feet wet a little bit and know how it is and what we need to do to beat them and get Game 2. I'm excited for that part, and it's going to be exciting to get ready to get back at it.”

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be here on Tuesday (9:30 p.m. ET; Utah16, SCRIPPS, ESPN2, TVAS2, SN, CBC).

“It's all close checking,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “I thought we checked well, I thought they checked well. You're hoping to make a big play. We score a power-play goal to help us. Those things are going to have to come into play, because I think it's going to be a close checking, hard series right on through.”

Stone tied the game 2-2 on a power play at 5:33 of the third period. Vejmelka made the first save on Tomas Hertl’s redirection at the edge of the crease, but Stone jumped on the rebound and buried the puck into the open net.

Dowd then gave Vegas a 3-2 lead at 7:20, redirecting Noah Hanifin’s shot-pass over Vejmelka's left pad from the slot.

“I didn't do a lot,” Dowd said. “(Hanifin) made a great play getting it to me in the middle. I just found a little bit of space. There's limited space out there, and guys are playing their best hockey defensively because everything matters that much more. It was a bang-bang play, and I was lucky enough to find a little bit of net.”

Barbashev added an empty-net goal before Vejmelka could get fully off the ice at 18:21 for the 4-2 final.

Cooley gave the Mammoth a 1-0 lead at 19:49 of the first period, one-timing a cross-ice pass from Nate Schmidt past Hart from the right circle.

Sissons tied the game 1-1 at 3:44 of the second period. Brayden McNabb's shot hit Cole Smith in front, and he sent a backhand pass across the crease toward the back post, where Sissons tapped it across the goal line.

“I saw some commotion going on the back side,” Smith said. “I wasn't exactly sure where he was, but this time of year, just throw pucks toward the net and good things can happen.”

Stenlund put Utah back ahead 2-1 at 5:07 of the second. Hart couldn't stop a dump-in from Sean Durzi, and Stenlund quickly put a shot toward the net from along the right boards. Hart got back in time to make the save, but the rebound deflected in off Golden Knights defenseman Kaedan Korczak.

“That was a great game. We know Vegas is a really good team,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “It was a hard-fought game. It was physical. It was intense. Every inch was contested, so I was proud of how we prepped like the way we came out, and I think the guys were pretty composed. They were controlled. When we exploited our speed, it was a good factor for us, so we need to keep focusing on it.”