LAS VEGAS -- It takes 16 wins to hoist Lord's Stanley Cup.
One down, 15 to go.
The Golden Knights opened their 2025 postseason campaign with 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night to take a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-seven set.
Brett Howden scored twice and Adin Hill made 18 saves for the Knights. Pavel Dorofeyev also scored for Vegas, his first career playoff goal, while Tomas Hertl found the slimmest of margins for his 26th career playoff score.
Matt Boldy scored both of Minnesota's goals while Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves.
Vegas opened the scoring late in the first period when Hertl simply outmuscled Minnesota's Brock Faber to grab the puck and lift it short side and beat Gustavsson.
Boldy tied the game a little more than two minutes later when he one-timed Kirill Kaprizov's cross-ice pass to the doorstep past Hill.
The Knights retook the lead late in the second period, just five seconds into a power play, when Shea Theodore dragged the puck down the line, faked a shot and fed Dorofeyev, who fired a missile into a wide-open net to make it 2-1.
Howden pushed the lead to two goals early in the third period when he took a pass from Nic Roy inside the blue line during an odd-man rush and lasered a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle.
The Wild closed the gap again when Kaprizov's shot caromed behind the net, and Boldy was there to gather the puck on one side and deliver a nifty wraparound to the other and make it a one-goal game.
Howden's second of the evening, into an empty net as time expired, provided the final margin.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday's game:
NO PRESSURE: Dorofeyev, who led the Golden Knights with 35 goals during the regular season, may have done himself a favor by notching his first-ever playoff goal in his second career playoff game. One, the jitters are out after getting on the stat sheet, and two, any confidence that poured in from the regular season was exemplified when his blast beat Gustavsson.
"I think it's important to get that out of the way, so good for him," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Real good play by Hertl all around, wins the draw, picks, releases, screens a goalie. He's done that a number of times this year, opened up plays for the guys. And Pav, I mean, he didn't miss. Even if the goalie does track the puck and get across, it might still go in. ... Happy for Pav as a young guy that has scored a lot, you don't want that to have to answer those questions as a playoff goes along, if you can help it."
MINNY MUSCLE: The Wild played an exceptionally physical game, looking to establish their presence immediately while hoping to bully the Knights. Minnesota outhit Vegas, 54-29, marking the Wild's second-highest postseason total in franchise history. The highest? That came on May 16, 2021, also against Vegas, with 71.
"Yeah, obviously, I think they were pretty physical today," Vegas forward Nic Roy said. "But we got a big team. We're not just gonna look for a number of hits. I think we're always gonna be a physical team. We're gonna win our battles. That's the most important thing. And I think the guys that have that in them to be physical are gonna be physical. And the guys that are going to make plays, are going to make plays and obviously raise their the intensity and winning their battles. It's just the way we approach it."
PLAYOFF ADIN: In his 20th career playoff appearance, and 18th start, Hill faced his second-fewest shots (20). The only time he faced fewer shots was his first-ever appearance, when he relieved Laurent Brossoit on May 6, 2023, and played just the third period. Hill has now allowed two or fewer goals in 12 of his 20 playoff games. He has a career goals-against average of 2.08 and a save percentage of .931.
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