Golden Knights sweep Avs, reach Stanley Cup Final

Before the game, Stone said the Golden Knights could not let the moment pull them away from their game.

“You’ve got to focus on the next game, no matter what situation you’re in, whether you’re up one, up two, down one, down two,” Stone said. “You just have to focus on the next game.”

That was the Golden Knights’ posture after Stone’s goal. They did not blow the game open. They did not chase. They stayed with it.

Hart Holds the Line

Hart did not face the same kind of storm he saw earlier in the series, but he had to be sharp. Colorado put eight shots on goal in the first, six in the second and seven in the third, but Hart kept the Avalanche off the board until the final minutes.

Vegas carried a 1-0 lead into the third after outshooting Colorado 20-15 through two periods. Blackwood kept the Avalanche alive with 19 saves through 40 minutes, but Hart made the one-goal lead feel larger than it was.

The Golden Knights also kept Colorado’s power play quiet. The Avalanche went 0-for-1, while Vegas went 0-for-2. In a game this tight, the lack of a Colorado special-teams breakthrough mattered.

Smith Gives Vegas Breathing Room

The second Vegas goal came from the kind of depth player who has defined this run.

Smith scored at 14:15 of the third period, taking assists from Dylan Coghlan and Nic Dowd to make it 2-0. It was Smith’s third goal of the playoffs and the biggest of his postseason.

The goal gave Vegas breathing room, but not comfort. Colorado answered late, with Gabriel Landeskog scoring at 17:57 off assists from Martin Necas and Nazem Kadri to cut the lead to 2-1.

For the first time all night, the Avalanche had real life. However, Vegas did not give them the tying goal. Hart stopped Nathan MacKinnon with 1:20 left, and the Golden Knights closed out the final minute without letting Colorado turn the game into the track meet Stone warned about before puck drop.

“If you’re chasing the game and turning into a track meet against these guys, they’re going to bury you,” Stone said before the game.

Vegas never let it get there.

Next Game Became the Final Word

Tortorella had no interest before the game in framing the night as a chance to sweep a Presidents’ Trophy winner. Instead, he brushed off comparisons to his 2019 Columbus team and kept pulling the conversation back to the same idea.

“We don’t look at closing out,” Tortorella said. “We look at it as our next game, and we’re trying to be better each and every game.”

The Golden Knights were not flashy in Game 4. They were not perfect, either. However, they were better for long enough to finish the job.

Colorado came into the series with the league’s best regular-season record. Still, Vegas sent it home in four straight, winning twice in Denver and twice in the Fortress. The Avalanche changed goalies, pushed late and finally broke through in the third, but by then, the Golden Knights had already built the kind of game they wanted.

Stone started it, Smith finished the scoring for Vegas, and Hart carried the lead across the line. As a result, the Golden Knights are headed back to the Stanley Cup Final.

Up Next

The Golden Knights now wait for their Stanley Cup Final opponent.

Vegas swept Colorado 4-0 in the Western Conference Final and will face the winner of the Eastern Conference Final between Carolina and Montreal. The Hurricanes lead that series 2-1, with Game 4 scheduled for Tuesday night in Montreal.