LAS VEGAS -- The Vegas Golden Knights have been here before, one win from putting an opponent away.
In their seven previous appearances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they have been in the situation 22 times, going 11-11.
No. 23 will come Thursday when they look to finish off the Minnesota Wild in Game 6 of the Western Conference First Round at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Thursday (7:30 ET, FDSNNO, SCRIPPS, ESPN, TVAS2, SN360).
The Golden Knights lead the best-of-7 series 3-2 but know win No. 4 won’t be easy.
“It’s always the hardest to finish the series off, right?” forward Tanner Pearson said. “We have to have the mentality, and they're going to give us their best, so it will be a good game.”
The Golden Knights are 4-3 under coach Bruce Cassidy in close-out games, and have outscored their opponents 29-15, including a 9-3 victory against the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.
“We've won some elimination games with big scores,” Cassidy said. “When a team's up against it, you've got to match their intensity. You can't sit around and wait and say, ‘Oh, I've got another chance.’”
One thing in Vegas’ favor is that 15 of the players who have skated in this series have won the Stanley Cup, 13 of them from the 2022-23 team. The others are Pearson and forward Brandon Saad.
Pearson was part of the Los Angeles Kings' championship in 2014, while Saad won the Cup twice with the Chicago Blackhawks (2013, 2015).
It’s that experience that has kept the Golden Knights on an even keel, Pearson said.
Case in point was Game 5, when Wild forward Ryan Hartman appeared to break a 2-2 tie with 1:15 left in the third period. But following a wild turn of events that involved an official review that determined Hartman did not deliberately kick the puck into the goal and a coach's challenge that showed the play was offside, the goal was called off. The Golden Knights were able to regroup and won 3-2 in overtime to take the series lead.
Again, playoff experience came into play.
“Everyone here has pretty much won it before, so it's definitely easier when it comes to those situations,” Pearson said. "Everyone knows what's at stake.”
The Wild, who are 3-6 in series when they trail 3-2, have two players on the roster who have won the Stanley Cup, forward Zach Bogosian (Tampa Bay Lightning, 2020) and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins, 2009, 2016, 2017).
And while Cassidy values the playoff experience, he understands it only can take his team so far.
“At the end of the day, it doesn't matter,” Cassidy said. “Good teams win every year that have been close. So once you've been there, there are certain things you can draw on. There's no entitlement because of that.
“There's something you can use to your advantage in the previous runs and try to take that. You got to play the other team at the end of the day. That's all that matters.”
