Letter of commendation: ‘X’ marks clinched playoffs
IT BEGAN on a Friday in October, inside American Airlines Center, against a Dallas Stars side that at the time many believed would challenge for a Stanley Cup this season, a historic evening that ended in dramatic victory.
James Neal would score the game-winner while sliding from his knees with 2:44 remaining, and the Golden Knights were 2-1 winners and off to prove the hockey world wrong over the next five months.
The final piece of evidence was served Monday night.
It’s in the form of an X. a 4-1 win against Colorado before an announced gathering of 18,326 at T-mobile Arena.
“From that first game of the season and winning in Dallas, we believed in ourselves and the team and the guys playing next to each other,”
Neal said. “When you do that, good things can happen.
“Everyone had a second chance
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the 40th,” Karlsson said. “It wasn’t one of my hardest goals, but they all count. I’m just very happy and relieved and obviously to get the clinch, too.”
The Knights had a chance to lock up a playoff berth Saturday at Colorado and would have clinched with an Anaheim loss Sunday at Edmonton.
Instead, they took care of business in front of an announced crowd of 18,326 and used their red-hot power play to get it done.
The Knights went 2-for-4 with the man advantage and are clicking at a league-best 31.0 percent (26-for-84) since Jan. 21.
“I wasn’t relying on anybody, honestly,” said center Erik Haula, who set up Theodore’s goal early in the third period. “We talked about it. We’ve got to play well ourselves. It’s not a good sign if you lose all the games and somebody else gets you in the playoffs. That’s not what we’re looking for. We’re looking to play our best hockey this time of the year.”
Colorado’s Tyson Jost was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking Pierre-edouard Bellemare during a faceoff after the Avalanche tied the game at 1 on Erik Johnson’s second-period goal.
Marchessault didn’t need long to capitalize, as he used a screen from Tuch and snapped a laser from the right faceoff dot past Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov for his 25th of the season with 5:44 left in the second period.
The Knights went ahead 1-0 at 4:14 of the second, wasting no time after Colorado was assessed a penalty for too many men on the ice.
Marchessault’s drive was blocked and Karlsson fouled off the rebound as he tried to swat it out of the air. But the puck fell to Tuch in front of the net and he buried it for his 14th goal of the season and first since March 8 at Detroit.
“We didn’t have a lot of expectations and we weren’t very happy with that, but like I said, we can’t be too satisfied with being good in the regular season,” Marchessault said. “There’s a lot more to come.”
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702387-5203. Follow @Davidschoenlvrj on Twitter.