Denver – Dylan Coghlan and Pavel Dorofeyev scored 2:33 apart in the second period, Carter Hart made 36 saves, and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday.
Brett Howton also had a goal and Nic Dowd scored into an empty net for Vegas, which grabbed home-ice advantage from the Presidents’ Trophy winners.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played Friday night in Denver.
Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog scored while Scott Wedgewood turned away 24 shots for Colorado, which trails in a series for the first time in this postseason.
Vegas captain Mark Stone (lower-body injury) and Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar (upper body) were scratched.
Both teams had chances in a scoreless first period. Keegan Kolesar nearly gave the Golden Knights the lead on a partial breakaway early on. Logan O’Connor hit the post for the Avalanche, and Hart made a save on Nazem Kadri in the waning seconds of the period.
Vegas finally broke through at 12:29 of the second period. Brandon Saad sent a pass to Coghlan in the slot, and Coghlan’s wrister beat Wedgewood through the pads for his first goal of the postseason.
Colorado’s Ross Colton took a roughing penalty less than two minutes later, and the Golden Knights took advantage. Mitch Marner stretched out with the puck and whipped a pass to Dorofeyev coming down the right side. Dorofeyev sent a one-timer to the short side past at 15:02, his 10th goal of the playoffs.
Vegas made it 3-0 early in the third after killing off a Colorado power play. Howden knocked down the rebound of Ben Hutton’s shot with his glove and tapped the puck by Wedgewood at 1:34.
The Avalanche answered at 5:53 when Nichushkin redirected Colton’s pass beyond Hart.
Wedgewood came off when Colorado went on the power play at 16:52, and Landeskog cut the deficit to one at 17:39.
The Avalanche pulled Wedgwood again, but Dowd sealed it into an empty net at 19:15.
Montreal earns PWHL championship
Sault Ste. Marie’s Abby Roque scored twice, Ann-Renée Desbiens made 23 saves and the Montreal Victoire won their first PWHL championship, blanking the Ottawa Charge, 4-0, on Wednesday night in Game 4 of the Walter Cup Finals in Ottawa, Ontario.
Maggie Flaherty and Lina Ljungblom also scored and Royal Oak’s Shiann Darkangelo had two shots for Montreal, which opened the best-of-five series at home with two overtime victories, then fell 2-1 at Ottawa on Monday night.
Marie-Philip Poulin was honored as the playoff MVP. She tied for the postseason lead with eight points on two goals and six assists.
The Minnesota Frost won the first two titles in league history, beating Ottawa in four games last year. Montreal beat Minnesota in the semifinals this season.
Ex-Spartan Howard has two points for U.S.
The defending champion United States beat Germany, 4-3, in a shootout on Wednesday at the world hockey championships in Zurich.
Ryan Leonard scored the shootout winner, former Spartan Isaac Howard added a goal and an assist and Birmingham’s Max Sasson had a goal for the U.S.
Red Wings defenseman Mo Seider scored a goal for Germany.
Also Wednesday, Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond scored two goals and ex-Red Wing Jacob de La Rose added a pair of goals in Sweden’s 6-0 win over Slovenia.
Hurricanes brush off layoff for Game 1
The Carolina Hurricanes finally return to game action on Thursday.
Key word: Finally.
The Hurricanes have been awaiting their opposition for the Eastern Conference finals since May 9, and the respite ends when they take on Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 in Raleigh, N.C.
Carolina’s 11-day layoff is the longest for an NHL team since Montreal had 12 days off between playoff series in 1919.
“You’re going to be amped up either way, it’s playoff hockey,” forward Sebastian Aho said on Wednesday. “We had something similar between Round 1 and 2. Obviously, it wasn’t quite as long, but still a break. I think we’ve been doing all the right things here, staying sharp physically, and (getting) a bit of a mental break for the first few days.”
Carolina, which finished atop the conference in the regular season, reached this point with consecutive sweeps in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, eliminating the Ottawa Senators and then the Philadelphia Flyers with eight straight wins.
The Hurricanes are the first team since the 1985 Edmonton Oilers to sweep their opposition in the first two rounds, and the first since the format changed to four best-of-seven series in 1987.
On the surface, Carolina is a heavy favorite against the young Canadiens, but the Hurricanes are quick to dispel that notion, and not just because they have been eliminated in the conference finals the last four times they made it this far.
Montreal won all three regular-season meetings between the teams, including a pair in late March, by a combined score of 15-8.
“They’re a high-pressure team,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “They’re fast, have a good goalie, a good power play. They don’t give you much time and make it hard on you to get anywhere on the ice. … The way they play is a playoff, grinding game and they showed it those first two series against two good teams.”
The Canadiens, who last reached the league semifinals in 2021, arrived to this point with a pair of seven-game series victories against the two teams that finished above them in the Atlantic Division. After dispatching the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round, Montreal upended the Buffalo Sabres in a thrilling Game 7 overtime on Monday.
It has been an impressive turnaround for a club that finished at the bottom of the league standings in the 2021-22 season – during which the Canadiens made a coaching change and hired current bench boss Martin St. Louis – and is the youngest squad to reach the third round in more than 30 years, when the 1992-93 Canadiens advanced to the conference finals.
“Ever since, we’ve had the belief that we can be a really good team really quickly,” captain Nick Suzuki said. “Guys have really bought into how we play and everything that Marty preaches. So, it’s really cool to be in this situation this fast, being such a young team. We just have a lot of fun, and we just want to keep the journey going.”
A few aspects of Montreal’s game that differ from the previous Carolina opponents is team speed and offensive ability.
The Canadiens netted 43 goals through the first two rounds and averaged more goals per game than Carolina (3.07 to 3.00). A huge part of Montreal’s offensive success has been with the man-advantage.
The Canadiens scored a league-leading 13 power-play goals in the first two rounds (13 of 52), including eight against Buffalo.
That attack will test Carolina’s penalty kill, which has surrendered only two power-play goals in 40 postseason opportunities. Goaltender Frederik Andersen has allowed only 10 goals, and no more than two in an outing.
“We’re confident in everyone in the room,” said forward Alex Newhook, the overtime hero against Buffalo. “We know what we’re capable of. We’re excited to keep it rolling.”
Sabres’ Ruff receives 2-year extension
The Buffalo Sabres rewarded Lindy Ruff for ending the team’s lengthy postseason drought on Wednesday by signing him to a two-year contract extension.
Financial terms were not disclosed by the team for Ruff, who will remain with the Sabres through the 2027-28 season.
The winningest head coach in franchise history with 657 victories, Ruff helped Buffalo halt a 14-year playoff drought by guiding the club to a first-place finish in the Atlantic Division with a 50-23-9 record in 2025-26. The Sabres dispatched the Boston Bruins in the first round before falling to the Montreal Canadiens in seven games in the second round.
Ruff, 66, is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s coach of the year. He previously won the award in 2005-06, during his first stint with the Sabres.
In 17 seasons with Buffalo, Ruff took the Sabres to the postseason nine times, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1999 where they lost to the Dallas Stars in six games.
Ruff owns a 950-741-169 record with 78 ties during his coaching career with the Sabres, Stars and New Jersey Devils.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Hockey roundup: Vegas takes West final opener; Montreal earns PWHL title
Reporting by Detroit News staff and wires / The Detroit News
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