Golden Knights hold off Avalanche to steal Game 1 of Western Conference Final

DENVER — Dylan Coghlan scored his first playoff goal to get Vegas rolling, Carter Hart made 36 saves and the Golden Knights opened the Western Conference Final by holding off the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 on Wednesday night.Trailing 3-0 in the third period, Colorado made it 3-2 with 2:21 remaining on a power-play goal from Gabriel Landeskog.Nic Dowd sealed it for Vegas with an empty-net goal.Pavel Dorofeyev and Brett Howden also scored for the Golden Knights, who took advantage of several defensive miscommunications by the Avalanche as they juggled their blue-line pairings with Cale Makar sidelined by an upper-body injury.Coghlan scored his first NHL goal since Dec.

17, 2021.The 28-year-old defenseman spent most of the season in the American Hockey League.

He’s played the last five postseason games with the recent injury to Jeremy Lauzon.“When you say Dylan Coghlan to me, I think of no fear,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said.“I think he’s one of our best defensemen since he’s been with us and in the lineup.

… He’s a bit unflappable.”It was a smothering performance most of the game by the Golden Knights as they kept the pressure on goaltender Scott Wedgewood, while controlling the Avalanche’s speed through the neutral zone.Vegas also had 23 blocked shots.“We didn’t play a flawless game by any means,” Tortorella said.

“We have work to do.”Valeri Nichushkin had a goal at 5:53 of the third to make it 3-1.Hart was stellar most of the evening, making one sprawling save after another.He got some help from his post, too, when Logan O’Connor’s liner clanged off it in the first period.“We know they’ve got a lot of skill on their team, and we respect that,” Hart said.

“But you can’t respect them too much, and I thought we did a good job of defending and limiting their time and space.”Mitch Marner added an assist for Vegas to give him 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in this postseason.It was Dorofeyev’s NHL-leading 10...