Carter Hart saved 36 shots. © APA / MATTHEW STOCKMAN

Carter Hart shines – and Vegas cheers.

The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 in game one of the Western Conference Finals at the Ball Arena on Thursday night (CET).

21 May 2026

From: sn

“That’s huge. I mean, to come out of the gate like we did today – I thought we had a really strong first period,” said goalie Carter Hart, who stopped 36 shots. “We know they’re a good team. We know they have a lot of quality on their roster, and we respect that. I think we did a good job defensively, taking away their time and space. We also blocked a lot of shots today, closed down a lot of passing lanes, and tied up some sticks.”

Pavel Dorofeyev scored his tenth goal of the Stanley Cup playoffs, a league-leading total. Dylan Coghlan, Brett Howden, and Nic Dowd also found the net for the Golden Knights, the top seed in the Pacific Division. Mitch Marner and Tomas Hertl each added an assist.

"There is still a lot of work ahead of us"

“To come to this arena against this team, in a situation like that, where they’re trying to overwhelm you from the start – I thought our first period was really good,” said Vegas coach John Tortorella. “That was a strong away period from us. Sure, we had some major lapses in concentration. We certainly didn’t play a perfect game. But we scored important goals at the right time and got some great saves at crucial moments. We still have work to do.”

Nathan MacKinnon (back) lost with Colorado against Vegas. © APA / SEAN M. HAFFEY

Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog scored the goals for the Avalanche, the top-seeded team in the Central Division and the entire Western Conference. Nathan MacKinnon recorded one assist, and Scott Wedgewood stopped 24 shots. "It was good in some parts, not good enough in others," said Colorado coach Jared Bednar.