LAS VEGAS -- Noah Hanifin scored the go-ahead goal at 18:05 of the third period to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 5-3 victory and the Pacific Division crown against the Nashville Predators at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.
Brett Howden, Nicolas Roy, Alexander Holtz, and Ivan Barbashev scored for the Golden Knights (49-22-9). Reilly Smith had two assists, while Adin Hill made 14 saves in his 50th start of the season.
The Golden Knights will have home-ice advantage for the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and await their first-round opponent. This also marked the fourth time in eight years that Vegas has claimed the division's top seed.
“This is just the beginning,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “But it's good when you have high expectations and standards. That is a good thing. Pressure, people talked about that before, all pressure's on. … So, we'll welcome the pressure. That probably means you're doing well in something, right? It means you're playing in high-stakes games. That's what's there for us around the corner. The way we approach things. We want to be held to a standard and have a reasonable chance to meet it, and we did.”
How The Goals Were Scored
Jordan Oesterle gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 8:11 of the first period with a blast from the point on the rush.
Brett Howden tied the game at 4:02 of the second period with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot. Then 94 seconds later, Roy scored with a quick shot from the low slot to make it 2-1. Holtz extended the lead to 3-1 on the power play, crashing the net for a backdoor tap-in at 11:09.
Golden Knights fans got a familiar sight when Jonathan Marchessault scored his 20th goal of the season at 1:02 of the third period. Marchessault, the franchise leader in goals, returned to Las Vegas for the first time since signing the Predators in the offseason.
“It definitely never happened to me scoring in 'the Fortress' and being that silent,” he said. “It was just a great atmosphere, great building, happy to see the fans and the organization. I couldn't say more good things about top to bottom here.”
Marc Del Gaizo tied the game at 4:58 when Andreas Englund's shot ricocheted off his helmet past Hill.
Hanifin scored the go-ahead goal at 18:05 when his one-timer got through a screen.
“We're trying to get the puck to the net, and that's something we've been focusing on as a D corp. Just getting more shots from the blue line,” Hanifin said. “Fortunately, we got one by there.”
Barbashev rounded out the scoring with an empty-net goal at 19:58 for the 5-3 final.
Up Next
The Golden Knights will travel to Western Canada for their final two regular season games.
They will play the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, followed by the Vancouver Cancuks on Wednesday.