‘Every goal is like a party’: Home ice a major advantage for Golden Knights

By Jesse Granger

Thursday, April 26, 2018 | 11:50 p.m.

The Golden Knights opened their second-round playoff series against the Sharks Thursday night, scoring goals so rapidly the public address announcer at T-Mobile Arena couldn’t keep up.

Before one goal could be announced the next one would already be in the back of the net, but even if he had, you likely wouldn’t have heard it over the deafening roar of the sell-out crowd.

The stands shake, the plexiglass boards tremble with the bass of the arena sound system, and visiting players crack under the pressure that the Golden Knights’ home crowd creates. It played a major role in Vegas’ 7-0 win to take a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinal best-of-seven series.

“I can’t even describe how loud it was, honestly,” Vegas forward Alex Tuch said. “It was chilling.”

The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, the ivy-covered walls of Wrigley Field in Chicago and the 100,000-plus fans at the Horseshoe in Ohio are all great home advantages, and T-Mobile Arena may soon belong in that conversation for the best home venues in all of sports.

Several players said it’s the loudest arena they’ve ever heard, “hands down.”

“I think it’s right up there,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “The old Chicago Stadium used to be pretty loud too, but this is up there with the loudest (I’ve) ever heard. When we scored goals the guys had a hard time trying to hear me when we are changing lines.”

Cody Eakin deflected a shot by Brayden McNabb into the net to open the scoring in the first period, sending the crowd of 18,444 to its feet like they were shot out of a cannon.

The thunderous cheers, twirling white rally towels and goal song — “Vegas Lights” by Panic at the Disco — blaring throughout the building only fuels the players further.

“Every goal is like a party,” David Perron said. “We just keep feeding off of it.”

Minutes later, Erik Haula fired a wrist shot past San Jose goalie Martin Jones, and Jonathan Marchessault followed it up with another goal barely a minute later to make it 3-0.

“After the first goal I was talking to Haula and Neal saying, ‘Let’s go out there and have a good shift,’ and we were able to score right then and there,” Tuch said. “It continued that momentum and the crowd was into it, and the bench was into it.”

Vegas didn’t take its foot off the Sharks’ necks, pounding them with goal after goal to match the worst postseason loss in San Jose’s 28-year franchise history.

“We understand the environment we’re in,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “They’re a good home team and they come out fast usually. I think you understand as a player anytime you go on the road something like that can happen, and we didn’t do a good enough job stopping it.”

Only six teams in the NHL had more road wins than the Sharks this season.

“This team has always played well on the road and we’ve always been able to handle that, so we’ll look to have a little bit of a better start next game,” Pavelski said. “We’re usually able to stop the bleeding when it happens and we just didn’t tonight.”

But T-Mobile Arena isn’t just any arena. After a trip to Los Angeles for the first-round playoff games, the difference in atmosphere was drastic. The atmosphere for relatively meaningless regular season games was louder and more intense at T-Mobile Arena than it was at Staples Center as their Kings’ faced elimination on April 17.

“It’s the best place to play,” Marchessault said. “When you know your crowd is behind you no matter what, we just want to show up for the crowd. It’s just honestly been awesome.”

Through three playoff games at home, the Golden Knights have outscored opponents 10-1, and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has stopped 92-of-93 shots with two shutouts. They were equally impressive during the 41-game regular season home schedule.

It’s a small sample size, but the Golden Knights may have the best home advantage in all of sports.

“It’s definitely (the loudest arena) I’ve played in,” Marchessault said. “It’s amazing. It just gives us so much energy.”