By MARK ANDERSON AP Sports Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brayden McNabb hit Mark Stone in stride with a lob pass in the first period for a highlight reel of a play, but it was the gritty work of the Golden Knights’ defense that ultimately put Vegas in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Golden Knights limited the Avalanche’s high-powered offense all series and then suffocated it Tuesday night.
That defense, aided by goals from Stone and Cole Smith, led to a 2-1 victory and an unthinkable sweep of Colorado for the Knights’ third final in nine seasons.
“It’s by far our best game,” said Vegas coach John Tortorella, whose team was 30-1 at Caesars Sportsbook at the beginning of the series to sweep. “(Checking is) something we’ve been concentrating on, and I think we’ve gotten better and better through the rounds. But tonight’s game was our best checking effort, and that’s a hell of a hockey team we played over there.”
The Golden Knights will get a break while they watch to see whether Carolina or Montreal emerges from the Eastern Conference Final.
This is a crushing end for an Avalanche team that won the Presidents’ Trophy and had blown through the playoffs with an 8-1 record. Chicago in 2013 was the last team to claim the Presidents’ Trophy and the Stanley Cup in the same season.
“We ran into a buzz saw in Vegas,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I think they deserved the credit. It’s not a knock on how hard they played, but they’re a well-oiled machine right now, peaking at the right time. I look at their series and man-to-man they’re playing at the top of their game. We’ll have to regroup and reassess and reflect on our season and the series and go from there.”
With several Las Vegas Raiders players looking on, including quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza, the Golden Knights got on the scoreboard when McNabb delivered a perfect pass to Stone. Not known for elite skating ability, Stone nevertheless got behind the Avalanche, caught the puck and scored.
“I’m not winning a ton of races,” Stone said. “I think I can create angles to get into those positions. That’s probably why I’ve had quite a few breakaways in my career.”
That was the only goal until Smith tipped in Dylan Coghlan’s shot from the point with 5:45 left for a critical two-goal margin.
Carter Hart stopped 20 shots, coming within 2:03 of his first playoff shutout in six years.
Gabriel Landeskog ended that shutout, one of the few highlights of the night for the Avalanche, who went the final 14:23 of the second period without a shot on goal and more than 25 minutes with just one shot.
Hart said he thought the Golden Knights defense “100%” frustrated the Avalanche.
“I think once we scored that first goal, in the second and third period we just kind of locked it down and kept pressure on them,” Hart said. “We did a great job. We had some huge blocks tonight.”
It wasn’t just this night. Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon, who led the NHL with 53 goals in the regular season, failed to hit the back of the net in any of the four games. Martin Necas, who had 100 points, totaled just two in this series.
The Avalanche averaged a league-high 3.63 goals during the regular season and in the first two rounds upped that to 4.11. Against the Golden Knights? It was 1.75.
“I think you look back at the four games, there are definitely times where we found our game,” Landeskog said. “I think the problem was we found ways to lose hockey games. I think over the course of the regular season, in the first two rounds, it was the opposite. Even if we didn’t have our A-game, we were finding different ways to win hockey games, and against this good of a hockey team in the Golden Knights, they’ll make you pay for your mistakes.”
Mackenzie Blackwood, making his first start in the series, gave the Avalanche a chance to win with several dazzling saves en route to 24 saves overall. His best stop came late in the second period when he lunged to glove a power-play shot from Pavel Dorofeyev.
The journey to the final isn’t quite the Cinderella story of the Golden Knights’ first team that made the Stanley Cup Final in 2018 before losing in five games to Washington, but Vegas’ voyage to this point was far from expected.
The Golden Knights faced the possibility of not making the playoffs for just the second time in franchise history when management fired coach Bruce Cassidy, who led the club to the 2023 title, with eight games left in the regular season.
In came Tortorella, who validated the controversial decision by leading Vegas to a 7-0-1 record to close the regular season and then series victories over Utah and Anaheim. Then the Golden Knights faced an Avalanche team on a roll and without any sign of slowing down.
At least until facing Vegas.
Bednar searched for answers against the Golden Knights, even changing goalies on Tuesday. The Avalanche also dealt with injuries to their top two players this series — reigning Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar and MacKinnon, a Hart Trophy finalist.
The Golden Knights had their own injury issues, winning the first two games of the series without Stone.