Golden Knights hold off Avalanche in Game 1 of Western Final

DENVER -- Carter Hart made 36 saves, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

“It's huge. I mean, to come out like we did, I thought we came out really good in the first period,” Hart said. “We know they're a good team. We know they got a lot of skill on their team, and we respect that. But you can't respect them too much, and I thought we did a good job of defending and limiting their time and space. And I thought we blocked a lot of shots tonight, got in a lot of lanes, and tied up some sticks.”

Pavel Dorofeyev scored his League-leading 10th goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Dylan Coghlan, Brett Howden, and Nic Dowd also scored for the Golden Knights, the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division. Mitch Marner and Tomas Hertl each had an assist.

“To come into this building against that team in this type of situation where they try to kind of blitz you, I thought our first period was good,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “It was a good road period for us. Listen, we had some major inconsistencies. We didn’t play a flawless game by any means. We got some timely goals, got some great saves at key times. We have work to do. Nice to get the first one under your belt and get a win, but we have plenty of work to do when we’re playing against that team.”

Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog scored for the Avalanche, the No. 1 seed from the Central Division and Western Conference. Nathan MacKinnon had an assist, and Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves.

“I thought it was good at times and not good enough at others,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Like the start of the game, good energy, good pace, thought we faded away for 20 minutes in there. I’d like to see the urgency and the relentlessness that we had in the third period earlier in the game, for longer stretches. Lots to improve upon for our group going into Game 2.

“You’ve got to find the hunger earlier in the game. We all know the importance of these games and every game, especially next game now with it being our second home game down one. It shouldn’t be hard to sort of drive the urgency, and there’s a few things that are building blocks of our team and our team identity that I think we can do more consistently to help us earlier in the game.”

Colorado defenseman Cale Makar missed the game with an undisclosed injury.

“He’s an important player, right, and he plays a lot. Some of the areas that we struggled with tonight, those are his strengths,” Bednar said. "But he’s not playing. So we have to find a way. I think the guys that we had playing tonight, not just the ‘D,’ but like we’re capable of more and capable of better. It just wasn’t there for us tonight. We got to make sure it is for Game 2.”

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is at Ball Arena on Friday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Coghlan's first career postseason goal gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 12:29 of the second period after his wrist shot from the high slot went in clean five-hole. Brandon Saad set up the play when he fed him in stride as he entered the zone. It was Coghlan’s first NHL goal since Dec. 17, 2021, against the New York Rangers.

“It was pretty crazy,” Coghlan said. “Honestly, I didn't know it went in until I turned and looked to Shea (Theodore). He was smiling at me. So, yeah, kind of just blacked out for a second, but saw an opportunity to jump in the rush, and I think there was a few guys behind me. So great play by 'Saader' to find me, and kind of just shot it, and luckily it went in.”

Said Hart: “So happy for the guy. I mean, he came in in the Anaheim series. Thought he did a tremendous job then. Stepped up tonight huge, and just a huge first goal tonight and couldn't be happier for the guy.”

Dorofeyev scored on the power play to extend his goal streak to four games (six goals) and make it 2-0 at 15:02. He wristed Marner’s pass short side inside the post from the right circle. Marner took the puck into the high slot and cut into the right corner before dropping it around Logan O'Connor to Dorofeyev as he skated through the circle.

“It was just unbelievable play. Yeah, he's such a skilled guy, always plays puck very well and can make these type of plays,” Dorofeyev said of Marner. “I think when you start on a road series, you always want to try to get a ‘W’ in the first game because you have chance to start from 0-0 and go to the second game up one. So it's good to have one.”

Howden pushed it to 3-0 at 1:34 of the third period when he gloved down the rebound of Ben Hutton’s initial shot into the crease and tapped it into the open net. The puck caromed to Hutton to set up the 2-on-1 as he exited the penalty box after Howden blocked Sam Malinski’s point shot. Howden extended his road goal streak this postseason to six games (seven goals).

“I think you just go into the game with confidence from our last two series,” Marner said. “It's a very hard team we're playing against. We know that. We know they're going to come with even more next game, and we got to be ready for that.”

Nichushkin cut it to 3-1 at 5:53 after he deflected Ross Colton’s centering pass through his legs far side. Nichushkin skated into the zone with possession, dished over to Colton on the right side, and drove the net for the give-and-go finish.

"We just weren't sharp. Execution was poor from everybody,” MacKinnon said. “We had chances. They didn't do a whole lot either. It was kind of a nothing game, and then they got a few goals. Really good team, obviously, but I thought we did a lot of damage to ourselves. Yeah, just guys kind of everywhere. Execution, like I said, needs to be better. Obviously, we're capable of being better than that.”

Landeskog’s power-play goal made it 3-2 at 17:39 during a 6-on-4 advantage with Wedgewood pulled for the extra attacker. He one-timed MacKinnon’s cross-crease pass over the right leg of Hart at the left post.

“Going into the third, even though they got one early after our power play, we still had lots of belief,” Landeskog said. “I mean, we just did it. We know we (have) plenty of offensive game in us to create some scoring chances, give us some good looks. I think tonight, Carter Hart played really good for them.”

Dowd then scored into an empty net at 19:15 for the 4-2 final, negating a potential icing from Jack Eichel’s shot off the end boards by winning a race to the puck.

NOTES: Vegas forward Mark Stone missed his fourth straight game with a lower-body injury after skating Wednesday morning. … Dorofeyev became the fifth player in franchise history with a double-digit goal total in a playoff year. … Howden became the sixth player in NHL history with a six-game road goal streak in the playoffs, joining Brian Propp (seven games in 1989), Sam Bennett (six in 2025), Mark Scheifele (six in 2018), Kevin Stevens (six in 1991), and Maurice Richard (six in 1951). … Howden recorded his third game-winning goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and tied Jonathan Marchessault (three in 2023), Chandler Stephenson (three in 2023), Max Pacioretty (three in 2021) and Alex Tuch (three in 2020) for the most in a postseason in franchise history.