Stacy Bengs/AP
Vegas Golden Knights’ goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (29) celebrates with Reilly Smith (19) after the Golden Knights’ 5-2 win against the Minnesota Wild in Game 3 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, May 20, 2021, in St. Paul, Minn.
Friday, May 28, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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Many consider “Game 7” the most exciting two words in sports.
That’s likely not the case for the Golden Knights, who for the third straight season saw a 3-1 playoff series lead evaporate to force a winner-take-all final showdown. That game is 6 p.m. tonight against the Wild at T-Mobile Arena.
“It doesn’t matter how you got here, you’ve got one game in order to advance and you’ve got to find a way to make that your best game for 60 minutes, whatever that looks like,” Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer said. “We’ve done a good job so far of pushing this to a one-game opportunity in our home rink and we’ve got to take advantage of that.”
This is the third Game 7 in the franchise’s four-year existence but the first at T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights lost at San Jose in 2019 and defeated the Canucks in the Edmonton bubble last season.
With more than 12,000 fans expected at T-Mobile, it will be the most rowdy, pro-Vegas crowd the Golden Knights have experienced in the final game of a series.
It’s just being at home hasn’t been an advantage this series. Both teams are just 1-2 in their home rink, with the Golden Knights dropping Game 1 and Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena, the latter of which was their first chance to eliminate the Wild.
“It’s definitely an exciting opportunity,” forward Reilly Smith said. “Our fans are definitely going to be full of energy and they’re going to be pretty loud so let’s make the most of it.”
We’ll start with the good historical stats: DeBoer has never lost a Game 7. He’s the first coach in NHL history to start 5-0 in a do-or-die game, and led the Golden Knights to a 3-0 victory over the Canucks last season in such a game. Defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Alec Martinez are both 4-0 in such games as well — Pietrangelo’s all came with the Blues, and Martinez went 3-0 with the Kings and won the game against Vancouver last year with Vegas.
And the bad: The Wild as an organization have never lost a Game 7. They’ve had three in their history, but just one since winning two Game 7s in 2003 when they defeated Colorado in 2014. All came on the road.
The Wild have all the momentum after stealing a victory in Game 5 on Monday despite being outplayed in the final two periods and being outshout 40-14, and shutting out Vegas on Wednesday for the second time in the series.
The past two games have brought Vegas’ scoring woes back into focus. It’s only two games, but in the playoffs everything is magnified, and the Golden Knights have two goals in their last six periods.
Game 6 looked like Vegas (and Minnesota for that measure) was trying to play slow. It was a feeling-out game, each waiting for the other to blink, and when the Golden Knights did early in the third, the Wild struck and took over the game.
If Vegas can find that offense before the Wild get on the board, they’ll be tough to beat.
“It’s not that we’re not opening up. You’ve got to play smart enough that you’re creating offense without being reckless, and I think we’ve walked that line pretty well all year,” DeBoer said. “But these games are tight. The other team has a say in how you’re going to play. You’re not going to walk in and dictate for 60 minutes how the game’s going to go. It’s just not reality and it’s not playoff hockey. Teams are too close, too good, the margins for error are too small.”
It’s not entirely about getting the first goal, though no one will deny that’s important. The first goal-scorer is just 3-3 in the series, including 0-2 in the last two at T-Mobile Arena. Vegas was down 3-1 after one in Game 5 at home, but did score first in that game.
It’s more about dictating play. The Golden Knights thrive in transition, allowing their speed to create mismatches coming into the zone. The Wild want to slow the game down and let the opponent get over eager — like they did in their victories in Game 1 and Game 6, both of which went to the third period in a scoreless tie.
Whoever can play to their style will likely be the team that advances to Colorado to play the Avalanche at 5 p.m. Sunday in the second round. If it’s the Golden Knights, their fans will exhale and not think about this series again until the next time their team is up 3-1 in a series.
And if it’s the Wild? Well, that will lead to a long offseason in Vegas wondering where the scoring went, how to fix it, and why the team that’s been so good for years has been unable to close out a series.
