Golden Knights hope regular-season dominance carries over vs. Wild

Fifty serves as a symbolic number for the Vegas Golden Knights heading into Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series Sunday night versus the visiting Minnesota Wild.

The Pacific Division champions (50-22-10, 110 points) hit the 50-win mark for the third time in the organization's eight-year history. The first two times -- in 2017-18 and 2022-23 -- the Golden Knights advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. They hoisted the Cup in 2023 after topping the Florida Panthers in five games.

Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy says his team must approach the best-of-seven series with the Wild (45-30-7, 97 points), the top wild-card team in the West, with the same desire to succeed that the 2023 champions had.

"At the end of the day, to me, it's the team that plays the best and is hungry," Cassidy said. "Before you win a Cup, you are pretty hungry to get there. We've got to reclaim that feeling we had two years ago."

Vegas is a heavy favorite to defeat the Wild -- and for good reason. The Golden Knights have won nine of the last 11 meetings, which includes all three of this season's games by a combined 12-4 score.

Center Jack Eichel, who had a career-high 94 points and 66 assists, scored a hat trick in the last meeting on March 25 in Saint Paul, Minn., to spark the 5-1 victory by the Golden Knights. Goaltender Adin Hill, a key cog in the 2023 title run, had 23 saves.

In 2023, Hill came in for the injured Laurent Brossoit in Game 3 of the second round against the Edmonton Oilers and went 11-4 with a 2.17 goals-against average and two shutouts. This season as the Golden Knights' No. 1, he went 32-13-5 with four shutouts in 50 games.

"It'll be fun, especially starting the first game here at home," Hill said. "I feel good about my game. There's some little areas obviously I feel I can improve on a bit, but it kind of goes out the window now, and a new season starts on Sunday."

Minnesota needed a dramatic 3-2 overtime win over the visiting Anaheim Ducks in its regular-season finale to lock up its 11th playoff berth in the last 12 seasons. The Wild, who needed a point to clinch a playoff spot, tied it with 20.9 seconds left in regulation on a goal by Joel Eriksson Ek.

Minnesota overcame the loss of star winger Kirill Kaprizov for 41 games -- and Eriksson Ek for six weeks down the stretch -- to make the playoffs. Kaprizov, who has 10 goals and 15 points in 16 regular-season games against Vegas, and Eriksson Ek each played in just one regular-season game against the Golden Knights. Both are considered to be healthy heading into the playoffs.

Two players who stepped up down the stretch for the Wild were forward Matt Boldy (team-leading 73 points and 27 goals) and defenseman Brock Faber, who led the team in time on ice with an average of 25 minutes, 31 seconds per game. He also starred for the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.

"We've had multiple opportunities to test ourselves, and some of them we've come through, and some of them we haven't," said Wild head coach John Hynes. "So, I think for us going into the series, we've had to fight there, and it's going to be no different in the series."

Hynes believes it will be a physical, tight-checking series with Vegas.

"No matter what, it's going to be a challenging series for the playoffs," Hynes said. "It's not going to be a beauty contest. It's going to be hard-fought games."

--Field Level Media