Inside T-Mobile Arena, the Vegas Golden Knights secured a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild this past Sunday on Easter, giving the Knights a 1-0 lead in the series. The Wild are looking to bounce back and tie the series as they head back to Minnesota. With three consecutive wins against the Wild during the regular season and this recent win, the Golden Knights have now achieved four straight victories against Minnesota. The Golden Knights made no lineup changes heading into tonight’s game.
The key to this matchup seems to be the start of the game. Minnesota came out strong, outpacing the Golden Knights in nearly every aspect. The Wild demonstrated superior speed, won crucial puck battles, and goaltender Philip Gustafson made significant saves when needed against the Knights.
After Game 1, the Golden Knights struggled to contain Minnesota’s first line, featuring Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Matt Boldy. With Eriksson Ek and Kaprizov fully healthy for the postseason, the Wild appear to be a different team than when they finished their last 20 games at 8-9-3 without them. Kaprizov registered two assists against the Golden Knights in the last game and was consistently active on the ice. His performance was undoubtedly a game-changer.
The Knights had difficulty containing Kaprizov and the first line from the start, as Kaprizov made a world-class saucer pass to Matt Boldy to open the scoring in the game.
After the goal, Minnesota began to dominate Vegas. Marcus Foligno, Mats Zuccarello, and Kirill Kaprizov all scored their first goals in the playoffs, giving the Wild a commanding 4-0 lead.
It was a challenging night for the defensive pairing of Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore, as both finished the game with a plus-minus of -4. Shea Theodore also made some costly turnovers that led to two Minnesota goals. This was an uncharacteristic performance for both defensemen; McNabb ended the season with a +42 rating (second in the NHL), while Theodore had a +18 rating, which was second among Vegas Golden Knights defensemen.
However, Noah Hannifin scored his third career playoff goal, putting Vegas on the board and sparking some momentum. The Golden Knights then cut the lead in half when Alex Pietrangelo found Tomas Hertl in front of the net for his second goal of the playoffs.
With Vegas pushing hard for two more goals, Phillip Gustafson made crucial saves when it counted. He stopped 30 of 32 shots from Vegas, achieving a .938 save percentage.
To top it off, Kirill Kaprizov scored his second goal of the game by shooting nearly 200 feet down the ice into the empty net. Kaprizov finished the night with three points and now has five points in this series, tying him with Mark Scheifele from the Winnipeg Jets for the most points in the NHL playoffs.
The series will now shift to Saint Paul, Minnesota, inside the Xcel Energy Center for two games. The first game is scheduled to be played this Thursday at 6 PM PT, followed by the second game on Saturday at 1 PM PT.
Make sure to stay tuned on Vegas Sports Today for more VGK content
