Vegas advances with dominant game 7 win

*Photo from CBS Sports*

Vegas wins series 4-3

   What a night game 7 was. It was an even bigger night for Mattias Janmark. Janmark scored a hat trick, Zach Whitecloud scored, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Minnesota Wild with a 6-2 win Friday night. 

   Vegas now will face the Colorado Avalanche in the second round, with game one beginning Sunday night in Colorado. Marc-Andre Fleury saved 18 out of 20 shots for the Golden Knights, being a big reason why they are moving on. 

   Vegas coach Pete Deboer said "You hope that moments like that galvanize your group. When we talked this morning in our team meeting, we talked about how we felt we were prepared for this tonight. We were ready to go and we had all hands on deck, we felt with that lineup that we would be a hard team to beat tonight."

   Janmark started the scoring for Vegas 5:09 into the first period, with his first goal of the playoffs making it 1-0 Golden Knights early. Nicolas Hague then scored 2:35 into the second period, giving Vegas a 2-1 lead. After the Wild quickly tied it, goals from Max Pacioretty and Whitecloud made it 4-2 Golden Knights after two periods. In the 3rd, two goals from Janmark sealed the 6-2 win.

   Janmark said of the series "It was a hard series. Minnesota's a good team. We were up 3-1 and you want to close those games out when you get the chance, but they're a good team. They fought back. What I've learned throughout my career in the playoffs is that you have to go through these games if you want to get far. You've got to know how to play." 

   For the Wild, Zach Parise started the scoring with a between the legs goal to tie the game at 1-1 with 3:11 remaining in the first period. Kirill Kaprizov then scored on the power play just 4:35 into the second period, which tied the game at 2-2.

   Parise said of the loss "I think we all firmly believed with where we were a handful days ago, down 3-1 and making it 3-3, we all firmly believed we were going to win this game tonight. We didn't quit. We played, we competed, but just couldn't get that third one."

   Vegas moves to round two to face Colorado, while the Wild move to offseason mode.