Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
The Vegas Golden Knights took care of business in Game 1 against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL semifinals Monday, winning 4-1 before 17,884 in announced attendance at T-Mobile Arena.
With six minutes left in the third period the chants of, “Fleury, Fleury, Fleury,” were heard through the arena. VGK goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 of 29 shots. It was his 90th career postseason win.
Thankfully Flower was our best player. It gave us a chance to get our legs. I really liked our game in the second and third periods. — Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer
The VGK defensemen came up big for the Golden Knights as Shea Theodore scored in period one, Alec Martinez scored 2:18 into period two and unsung Nick Holden tallied in period three to give the VGK the 4-1 win in the opening game of the Best-of-7 semifinal. The Montreal-Vegas winner plays the winner of Tampa vs the Islanders.
It was a workmanlike win for the Golden Knights over a team riding a seven-game winning streak — three against Toronto after trailing 3-1 in games in the opening playoff round and then a 4-0 playoff sweep of Winnipeg in round two.
“As soon as we settled in and scored our first goal, I feel like the pace was more in our favor and we were able to create a little bit more,” VGK forward Reilly Smith said.
After Montreal’s Cole Caufield scored a power play goal in the second period to cut into the VGK lead at 2-1, VGK forward Mattias Janmark banged home a goal from in close only 53 seconds later in the middle stanza to give the Knights a 3-1 lead.
It was big for us to get a goal in the first period even though they outplayed us a little bit. — VGK defenseman Nick Holden
The Knights’ in-game presentation raised the bar with its arena light show.
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Fans tonight. Let’s take a look.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was in the arena Monday. He was apparently making the postseason rounds.
The Knights have been in the NHL semifinals three out of four years, including the historic march to the 2018 Cup Final against Washington..
Speaking of the Knights’ first season in 2017-18, the coach of that team, Girard Gallant, has a new team to coach. Gallant is the new coach of the New York Rangers. The Golden Knights fired Gallant in mid-January 2020.
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