3 Takeaways: Golden Knights Clinch Seventh Playoff Berth In Eight Years, Despite 3-2 Loss To Edmonton
Despite the loss, though, Vegas is in the playoffs for the seventh time in its eight seasons in the NHL, as it qualified when the Utah Hockey Club defeated the Calgary Flames 3-1 to clinch for the Knights before the Oilers game was decided.
"Three years in a row, that's the objective here, I think," said Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy, whose led the Knights to the postseason in all three years he's been in Vegas. "This team is, to me, a playoff team that should be in the playoffs. We're going to be happy we're in, but that's not our ultimate goal, nor should it be. Especially a night like tonight, we'd rather have done it with a win."
Pavel Dorofeyev had a goal and an assist, while center Nicolas Roy also scored for the Knights, who suffered their first loss since March 16. Goaltender Adin Hill made 17 saves.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
700 FOR STONE: Captain Mark Stone appeared in his 700th game Tuesday night, in what was also his 334th regular-season game as a member of the Golden Knights. Stone, who was acquired from the Ottawa Senators in February 2019, has played in 409 games overall and ranks second on the team with 246 assists in both the regular season and the playoffs since arriving. His 140 goals and 386 points rank No. 1 overall among current members of the team.
SECOND PERIOD BLUES: The Golden Knights have dominated their competition in the first and third periods, outscoring teams by a combined score of 175-118. Their 73 goals in the first period rank fifth in the NHL, while they've allowed only 57 in the opening stanza. The margin is even greater in the third, with a 102-61 edge. Their 102 goals rank first in the league. After being outscored by the Oilers in the second period, 3-0, the Knights have just a 74-72 edge in the middle set. They rank 14th with their 74 goals. If the playoffs started Wednesday, the Knights would face a tough challenge in the St. Louis Blues, who are outscoring teams 75-57 in the second period.
NOW WHAT: Though the Golden Knights have clinched a playoff berth, they're not out of the wild-card woods just yet. Vegas (98) is five points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings (93) and seven in front of the Edmonton Oilers (91). Sitting in first and second of the Western Conference Wild Card standings are the Blues and Minnesota Wild, both from the Central Division. The Knights aren't in jeopardy of slipping out of the Pacific Division's top three, but could fall into second- or third-place with a late-season collapse. By doing so, they would face either the Kings or Oilers in the first round, rather than the Blues or Wild. The Knights have eight games remaining, including five on the road. They'll need to shake off Tuesday's loss and get back to winning if they want to wrap up their fifth Pacific Division title.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
13 hours ago
Avalanche add depth at forward by signing Victor Olofsson to a 1-year deal
DENVER -- The Colorado Avalanche added depth at forward Wednesday by signing Victor Olofsson to a one-year deal. The 30-year-old Olofsson spent last season with the Vegas Golden Knights, where he had 15 goals and 14 assists over 56 games. He turned in the longest road point streak in Golden Knights history when he notched at least a point in 10 straight games from Dec. 4 to Jan. 23. Olofsson got his first taste of the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, scoring two goals as the team reached the second round. A seventh-round pick by Buffalo in 2014, Olofsson has 105 goals and 106 assists in 370 games with the Sabres and Golden Knights. He reached two milestones last season — recording his 100th career assist on Jan. 17 and notching his 100th career goal the next night. The 5-fot-11, 180-pound Olofsson was on the 2019-20 all-rookie team. Before arriving in North America, Olofsson played in the Swedish Hockey League for parts of the 2013-18 seasons. He was a member of Team Sweden at the IIHF World Championship in 2021 and 2024. He helped the squad to a bronze medal in '24.
New York Post
17 hours ago
- New York Post
Fairfield headed to US title game with gutsy Little League World Series win over Las Vegas
Connecticut's Fairfield National is one step closer to a Little League World Series title. The team advanced to the U.S. title game with a 7-3 win over the Summerlin South Little League team from Las Vegas on Wednesday, riding strong defense, clutch hitting and a gutsy pitching performance. Fairfield fell behind early when Vegas second baseman Cache Malan slugged a three-run home run in the first inning off Fairfield pitcher SJ Taxiltaridis. 5 Fairfield, Conn.'s Jimmy Taxiltaridis tags out Las Vegas, Nev.'s Cutter Ricafort at home plate during the third inning. AP But Fairfield stormed back two innings later, tying the game in the third inning when Taxiltaridis hit a two-run single to left field after shortstop Luca Pellegrini brought home the first run with an RBI single. From there, they held Vegas at bay with a series of big defensive plays starting in the bottom of the third. In that inning, center fielder Dante Madera fully extended his left arm on the run toward the wall to record a flyout, and later, right fielder Ben Herbst nailed a runner at home to end the inning. Taxiltaridis escaped another scare an inning later. Vegas started the bottom of the fourth with two singles and loaded the bases with two outs, but the Fairfield pitcher threw a fastball past Mason Schutte for a swinging strikeout to end the threat. 5 Fairfield, Conn.'s Tommy D'Amura celebrates his home run with position coach P.J. Kippenhan during the sixth inning. AP With two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Pellegrini hit a bloop single to center field to bring in a run, putting Fairfield up 4-3. In the bottom of the fifth, Fairfield flashed some more leather, turning a slick 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. They extended the lead in the sixth inning with a Tommy D'Amura solo shot to left-center field to lead off the frame, and a two-out RBI triple off the bat of Boden Dunlap, who later scored on a passed ball, to make the score 7-3. 5 Fairfield, Conn.'s Ben Herbst runs toward home during the sixth inning. AP The Fairfield lineup got major production from the first four spots in the order — Pelligrini, Taxiltaridis, D'Amura and Jimmy Taxiltaridis — who each had two hits and combined for five RBIs. And they didn't look back from there. SJ Taxiltaridis exited the game with one out in the sixth inning, nearly tossing a complete game despite pitching through multiple jams, finishing with four strikeouts and two walks while allowing seven hits and three earned runs on the day. 5 Fairfield, Conn.'s Tommy D'Amura is surrounded by his teammates at home plate as they celebrate his home run against Las Vegas. AP D'Amura relieved SJ Taxiltaridis, getting the final two outs of the ballgame. Fairfield advances to Saturday afternoon's U.S. title game. They are just the third team from Connecticut to play in the U.S. LLWS final, joining Westport in 2013 and Trumbull in 1989. 5 Fairfield, Conn.'s SJ Taxiltaridis celebrates a fourth-inning ending strikeout with the bases loaded AP Vegas plays in Thursday's losers bracket game. The winner of that game will be the second team to play Fairfield in the U.S. title game. If Fairfield wins that game, they'll join Trumbull — a team headline by ex-NHLer and current Rangers GM Chris Drury — as just the second Connecticut team to play in the championship game. The U.S. will take on the winner of the international side in the LLWS championship game Sunday.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
JJ Pegues climbing up depth chart with preseason performance
The Las Vegas Raiders are looking for a defensive tackle to step up after the Christian Wilkins saga. So far, rookie JJ Pegues has answered the call during the Raiders' first two preseason games. Pegues had a handful of quality reps as a run defender against the Seattle Seahawks and managed to record four pressures as a pass-rusher versus the San Francisco 49ers, tied for the second-most among interior defenders according to Pro Football Focus. Additionally, the Ole Miss product continued to stand out against the run last weekend. That likely secured his spot on Las Vegas' 53-man roster, and also should help him gain some traction on the team's depth chart. So, let's flip on the tape and break down his performance on Saturday. Let's start with a good example of the former Rebel's knockback power as a run defender. The 49ers run lead zone to the weakside of the formation, putting the center one-on-one with Pegues, who appears to be two-gapping, meaning he's responsible for both A-gaps. Pegues uses good pad level and his impressive upper body strength at the point of attack to push the center into the backfield and reset the line of scrimmage. From there, the defender makes sure the strong side A-gap is protected by shading to that side of the center while peeking into the backfield. Because he won at the point of attack, once Pegues sees the running back cut into the weakside A-gap, he's able to cross the center's face and get involved in the tackle while the offensive lineman is still hanging onto him. Considering Las Vegas could use help at nose tackle, this is a pretty encouraging rep from the rookie. This next rep is almost identical to the last one, where Pegues is physically dominant at the point of attack to reset the line of scrimmage. Again, he knocks the center into the backfield, which helps cut the field in half by forcing the running back to cut up the field. Also, Pegues manages to get involved in another tackle while the center is still hanging onto him. Another strong rep against the run while lined up as a shade nose tackle. Unfortunately, Las Vegas has issues on the back end covering San Francisco's play-action pass here. So the ball is out of the quarterback's hands too quickly for the defensive tackle to get a sack, but he does manage to record a win as a pass-rusher. Post-snap, Pegues quickly recognizes it's a play-action fake and not a run play, transitioning from run to pass defense and abandoning his run responsibilities (the A-gap). Then, Pegues does a great job of using the left guard's momentum against him, winning with a hump move to get pressure. Again, the ball is out too quickly for the defensive lineman to hit home, but reps like these can pay off later with better coverage. The 49ers had a lot of quick passes to attack the Raiders' soft zones on Saturday. So the play above is another rep where Pegues gets a win without anything to show for it, since the quarterback gets rid of the ball almost immediately after his back foot hits the ground. Regardless, the defensive tackle does a good job of recognizing the quick set from the guard, adjusting his path to win around the outside by defeating the guard's hands. Again, plays like this one will pay off later when the offense runs a longer developing pass play or the quarterback is forced to work through his reads. Later in the game, the Raiders found success by having Pegues slant inside or running line games with him. Here, they run Cover 0, where both linebackers and the nickelback blitz while the defensive tackle lines up as a 3-technique in the B-gap pre-snap before slanting into the A-gap post-snap. He manages to capture the guard's attention by squaring up the guard before going inside, which allows the nickel to be a free rusher on the blitz. Granted, the running back does a good job of coming off the linebacker and picking up the defensive back in the protection scheme. However, Pegues keeps his feet moving and goes from attacking the center to bull rushing the guard, freeing up the linebacker (No. 43, Michael Barrett) to get the clean-up sack. So, the rookie managed to help two teammates get pressure on the quarterback while collapsing the pocket himself. This time, the Raiders run a T/E stunt where Pegues is the penetrator. Initially, he disguises the line game well by working up the field with his first two steps before pivoting to the outside and attacking the right tackle. As a result, he catches the right tackle off guard and is physical at the point of attack to win the rep and get pressure. Unfortunately, the ball is out quickly again, but this is still another quality rush from the rookie.
