*Photo from the Las Vegas Sun*
Vegas leads series 1-0
If there was any rust at all, from either the Vegas Golden Knights or the Montreal Canadiens, it certainly didn't show. These two came out firing in game one. Shea Theodore scored, Nick Holden scored, and the Golden Knights defeated the Canadiens 4-1 on Monday night, taking a 1-0 series lead in the 3rd round.
Vegas coach Pete Deboer said "We talked in our prescout meetings that they would be uncomfortable in their structure playing from behind. No one made them play from behind for a while. The goal was huge and at the right time with how we were playing."
The Canadiens were greeted in Vegas by a full arena, the first time they have played in the U.S. since March 7, 2020, and the first time they played in front of a capacity crowd since around that time as well. They played in front of 2,500 fans at their home playoff games, and 500 in Winnipeg for their second round matchup.
Canadiens defenseman Joel Edmunson said of playing in front of a packed arena again that "We were excited to play in front of a full barn again. It was fun, and we'll be better next game."
It was Theodore who opened the scoring for Vegas, with his first goal of the playoffs coming 9:15 into the first period. 2:18 into the second period, Alec Martinez scored his 3rd of the playoffs to give Vegas a 2-0 advantage. 12:58 into the second, it was Mattias Janmark who scored to make it a 3-1 lead for the Golden Knights. Holden then scored 10:06 into the 3rd, making it 4-1 Vegas and giving them the game one win.
3 goals from the defense core of Vegas powered them to the win. Vegas became the second team in the NHL to have 3 or more defensemen score at least one goal in a 3rd round game, joining the 1990-1991 Pittsburgh Penguins, who did it in game one of their 3rd round matchup as well.
Holden said of the secondary scoring contributions that "To get deeper in the playoffs, you need scoring from everyone. If you get guys contributing that aren't your big guns, you're going to win games."
Montreal's lone goal came from rookie Cole Caufield, who scored his first goal of the playoffs on the power play, coming 12:05 into the second period, which cut the lead to 2-1 Vegas. Caufield played his 20th NHL game in his rookie season in game one, earning a bonus in his contract by doing so.
Caufield said of the loss that "I think we had our chances to get back in the game. It was tight there for a while. We got it back to 2-1 and just some bad bounces. There are things we can get better at and work on. We'll be ready for Wednesday."
Game two of the series is on Wednesday, where Marc-Andre Fleury and the Golden Knights look to take a 2-0 series lead before heading to Canada, while Carey Price and the Canadiens look to even the series and force a game 5 back in Vegas.
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