Golden Knights begin postseason campaign vs Minnesota Wild taken in Las Vegas (Las Vegas Golden Knights)

RJ Forbus - The Sporting Tribune

Vegas Golden Knights LW Pavel Dorofeyev (16) celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday January 12, 2025 at T-Mobile Arena.

Las Vegas Golden Knights

Golden Knights begin postseason campaign vs Minnesota Wild

By Ryan Teasley

Apr 20, 2025 • 12:03 am

LAS VEGAS -- The Golden Knights start their 2025 playoff journey against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday at 7 PM PST. For the seventh season out of eight, the Golden Knights have played postseason hockey, and this will be the second time in their franchise history that they will face the Minnesota Wild; the first postseason meeting took place in the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Head-to-Head Season Series

The Golden Knights in three games won all three against the Wild this regular season. The first meeting took place on January 15th, when the Knights won away from home in Minnesota by a score of 3-2. A month later, on January 12th, the Golden Knights played them at home and were the winners with a score of 4-1. Their most recent and final regular season meeting was on March 25th, when the Golden Knights won 5-1, with Jack Eichel scoring a hat-trick in the matchup, and also Tanner Pearson and Brett Howden were goal scorers alongside Eichel in that game.

Season Stats

The Golden Knights made a historical stat that has never happened this past season. According to the VGK Communications account on X, the Golden Knights were penalized only 187 times, the fewest by any team in NHL history over the course of an 82-game season

The Golden Knights finished with just 187 power-play opportunities through 82 games, the fewest by any team in NHL history over the course of an 82-game season.
— VGK Communications (@VGK_PR) April 17, 2025

Another stat they were high in, which is a factor in the success they were able to have in the regular season, was that the Golden Knights were 2nd in the NHL for the power play percentage, which was 28.3%.

The 2024-2025 Golden Knights also achieved a franchise landmark, scoring 274 goals this season, which makes it a brand new franchise record for the most goals scored in total. The previous mark was made in 2017-2018, the inaugural season, and was at 268.

Opposition Playoff Preview

The Wild clinched a playoff berth in its final game of the regular season on Tuesday night on home ice against the Anaheim Ducks. They come into the playoffs having won 5 of their last 10 regular season games, but won 4 of their last 5, beating the Stars, the Sharks, the Canucks and the Ducks all in that 5-game span.

2021 Calder Trophy winner Kirill Kaprizov, despite only playing 41 games this past season, scored 25 goals and made 31 assists. Filip Gustavsson was the number 1 Goaltender for Minnesota this season with a 31-19-6 record, and also with a save percentage of .914.