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Golden Knights Win Playoff Opener

The Vegas Golden Knights have gone through some changes this season including firing head coach Bruce Cassidy with eight games to go in the regular season. Replacement John Tortorella did not lose a game during that stretch and the Knights figured to have some momentum heading into the postseason.

Despite a slow start and a lack of offensive firepower in the first two periods, Vegas kicked it into high gear outscoring the Utah Mammoth 3-0 in the final period to win Game 1 of the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs 4-2 in front of a sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Arena.

Mark Stone and Nick Dowd scored 1:47 apart in the third period to effectively put the game away after the Knights trailed 2-1. Colton Sissons scored the first goal for VGK and Ivan Barbashev added an empty netter giving Vegas the 1-0 series lead.

“It's hard to score goals, it's hard to get shots," Dowd said. "You see throughout the League right now, shots are low in a lot of games,” We’ve got to play what we do well. We're going to consistently try to do the same thing over and over. Some nights you are going to get rewarded, some nights you are not.”

Tortorella who said he wasn't going to change much after he took over Cassidy, did say he wanted his team to be physical. “I thought we checked well, I thought they checked well. You're hoping to make a big play. We score a power-play goal to help us. Those things are going to have to come into play, because I think it's going to be a close checking, hard series right on through, "said Tortorella.

Stone tied the game 2-2 on a power play at 5:33 of the third period. Dowd then gave Vegas a 3-2 lead at 7:20, redirecting Noah Hanifin’s shot-pass over Vejmelka's left pad from the slot.

Utah was making its first playoff appearance in franchise history and has surprised most of the league thus far with their solid defensive play. However, after a very solid 40 minutes, the Mammoth looked in over their head in the final period against an experience Golden Knights team.

Game 2 will take place on Tuesday back at T-Mobile Areana at 6:30pm.