SEATTLE — After missing the playoffs for the first time in their short franchise history last year, the Golden Knights wanted to savor winning the Western Conference championship and, of course, the Pacific Division.
Not for long, though. The Golden Knights believe there’s more to come in the postseason.
“I’m definitely proud of the group the way they handled that and came back this year, played a lot of good hockey,” defenseman Alec Martinez said. “But again, everything with a caveat, we haven’t won anything yet.”
Martinez broke a tie midway through the second period as the Golden Knights won their third Pacific Division title with a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The Knights finished 51-22-9 with 111 points, tying the franchise record for victories and holding off a late surge from the Edmonton Oilers to win the Western Conference and clinch home-ice advantage for the first three rounds.
The Knights will face Winnipeg to open the Stanley Cup playoffs, with Game 1 on Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena.
“Found a way, right? We’ve done that a lot this year,” Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said of the hard-fought victory.” The coach had high praise for goaltender Laurent Brossoit, who had 24 saves, including five during four Seattle power plays. The Kraken came up empty on all four chances.
“I thought our game was in and out,” Cassidy added. :”We played a lot of patches in the game where they were on top of us. I think LB (Brossoit) was probably our best player tonight. So it’s always nice when you’re going into the playoffs and your goalie is coming off a really strong game.”
Martinez’s goal at 12:37 of the second period came during a delayed penalty against Seattle. Martinez swatted a rebound past Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer for his third goal and undoubtedly the most important.
Reilly Smith also scored for the Knights on what technically was their first shot of the game but it didn’t touch his stick blade. Vince Dunn’s pass from behind the Seattle goal bounced off Smith’s skate and slipped past Grubauer. The goal came nearly 10 minutes into the first period.
Chandler Stephenson added an empty-net goal, deflecting the puck from his own zone with 38 seconds left.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I don’t think that this should be understated and make sure that we at least take a day celebrate it,” Smith said.
Cassidy praised his players and their effort for winning the conference and holding off a strong challenge from the Edmonton Oilers.
“We won all we could win in terms of the regular season,” Cassidy said. “We got the division crown, which was I thought was well earned. Edmonton has been charging hard coming out of the break like us. All the teams were playing well around us. And then you get the conference, which is nice too.”
Martinez’s goal at 12:37 of the second period came during a delayed penalty against Seattle. Martinez swatted a rebound past Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer for his third goal and undoubtedly the most important.
Reilly Smith also scored for the Knights on what technically was their first shot of the game but it didn’t touch his stick blade. Vince Dunn’s pass from behind the Seattle goal bounced off Smith’s skate and slipped past Grubauer. The goal came nearly 10 minutes into the first period.
Chandler Stephenson added an empty-net goal, deflecting the puck from his own zone with 38 seconds left.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I don’t think that this should be understated and make sure that we at least take a day celebrate it,” Smith said.
Jaden Schwartz scored his 21st for Seattle’s only goal on a night it dominated chances but couldn’t convert. Matty Beniers and Adam Larsson both hit posts, and Daniel Sprong was stuffed on a breakaway by Laurent Brossoit, who made 31 saves.
Seattle (46-28-8, 100 points) entered the finale with an outside shot of catching Los Angeles and finishing third in the Pacific. But the Kings held up their end beating Anaheim, and the Kraken had to settle for the top wild-card berth in the Western Conference.
“We played pretty damn hard. We had some good looks,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “I thought we could have created maybe a little bit more, mostly in the third period. I thought we worked really hard offensively. We generated enough.”
Seattle will have to wait until Friday night to learn its playoff opponent. The Kraken will face either Colorado or Dallas depending on the outcome of Friday’s game between the Avalanche and Predators in Nashville.
“Now the fun starts. This is why we play 82 games and this is why we grind throughout the year to give yourself an opportunity,” Schwartz said.
The Knights had some other reasons to be satisfied. Individually, Phil Kessel appeared in his NHL-record 1,064th consecutive game and played in 82 games for the 11th time in his career.
Brayden McNabb and William Karlsson also appeared in all 82 games this season for the Knights. Ivan Barbashev also appeared in his 82nd game but the first 59 of those came with St. Louis.
The Knights also welcomed back Jack Eichel and Shea Theodore from undisclosed injuries. Each played in the regular-season finale. Eichel had missed two straight while Theodore had missed the previous seven.
