Golden Knights claim Pacific Division with 5-3 win against Predators

The Vegas Golden Knights clinched the No. 1 seed in the Pacific Division with a 5-3 victory against the Nashville Predators at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Noah Hanifin scored the game-winning goal at 18:05 of the third period to improve the Golden Knights to 49-22-9. They await their first-round opponent and will likely host their game on Sunday.

Brett Howden, Nicolas Roy, Alexander Holtz, and Ivan Barbashev also scored. Reilly Smith had two assists, while Adin Hill made 14 saves in his career-best 50^th start.

“This is just the beginning,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “But it’s good when you have high expectations and standards. That is a good thing. Pressure, people talked about that before, all pressure’s on. … So, we’ll welcome the pressure. That probably means you’re doing well in something, right? It means you’re playing in high-stakes games. That’s what’s there for us around the corner. The way we approach things. We want to be held to a standard and have a reasonable chance to meet it, and we did.”

Golden Knights Await What’s Next

By clinching the top seed in the Pacific Division, the Golden Knights guaranteed themselves home-ice advantage for the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

More importantly, it gives the Golden Knights two games to rest key players and hone in on details. Vegas has two games remaining in the season, and while the games don’t matter in terms of seeding, it would be beneficial for the Golden Knights to maintain top form heading into the postseason.

Cassidy, however, doesn’t put too much stock into the final two games. He’s confident that his team will rise to the occasion on April 20.

“I hate to say this: we’re going to be OK no matter what happens with [the games against Calgary and Vancouver],” Cassidy said. “We’re not going to take our foot off the gas per se. It can’t be win, or we’re going sideways. It can’t be that message. The message will be, ‘Hey keep our details here.’ Know what’s around the corner. We’ll probably try to implement a few things that may help us.”

Holtz Displays Improvement

Holtz scored at 11:09 of the second period to give the Golden Knights a 3-1 lead. It marked Holtz’ first goal back since returning the to team earlier this week. He spent the past few weeks in Henderson with the American Hockey League affiliate to work on some things I his game.

Cassidy gave Holtz credit for not taking it personally but rather as an opportunity to grow his game.

“I had a good little stint in the AHL, but I’m obviously really happy to be back and get going up here,” Holtz said. “I would say just like the poise of my game [improved in Henderson]. I handled the puck a little bit more than I did at the beginning of the season.”

Welcome Back, Marchy

Jonathan Marchessault played his first game back in T-Mobile Arena after signing with the Nashville Predators during the offseason.

Marchessault played seven seasons with the Golden Knights and is the franchise’s leading goal scorer. He was honored with a tribute video at the first media timeout of the first period.