The easy answer to when the Henderson Silver Knights turned into the wagon they\u2019ve become is after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
You need to go a few days after that to find when the belief started kicking in.<\/p>\n
The Silver Knights returned from the break with a road series against the San Jose Barracuda on Valentine\u2019s Day weekend.<\/p>\n
They won the first game 4-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. The next night, San Jose scored five times in the second period to the tune of an 8-4 win.<\/p>\n
One step forward, two steps back. The Silver Knights showed flashes, but were still well out of a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a week after that where we talked about some lessons that needed to be learned,\u201d said Silver Knights coach Ryan Craig.<\/p>\n
It turns out they\u2019re quick learners.<\/p>\n
Less than two months later, they\u2019re the hottest team in the American Hockey League, rolling into the Calder Cup Playoffs on a 17-3-3 run since the break.<\/p>\n
The Silver Knights are heading to the postseason for the first time since 2022<\/a> after a weekend that required two thrilling, last-second wins over the Tucson Roadrunners.<\/p>\n \u201cStep one complete,\u201d Craig said. \u201cHappy for our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018At some point, it clicked\u2019<\/p>\n They rallied from three goals down on Friday to win 4-3 on Viliam Kmec\u2019s goal with less than a minute to go.<\/p>\n On Saturday, needing a regulation win to clinch, the Silver Knights scored twice in the final 1:26 to win 5-4.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fun hockey right now,\u201d center Tanner Laczynski said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s kind of buying in, playing the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2022 season was the Silver Knights\u2019 first full year in the AHL after their inaugural season was limited to division opponents because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n Pavel Dorofeyev was the leading goal scorer on that team, once upon a time.<\/p>\n Henderson was swept in the first round by the Colorado Eagles.<\/p>\n The next three years included a coaching change from Manny Viveiros to Craig, the assistant coach since the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>\u2019 inception who became the man tasked to right the ship in Henderson in 2023.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a slow build. Craig knew that it would be an adjustment when he took the job two weeks after the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n He\u2019s always had a patient demeanor. This season may have shown that more than ever.<\/p>\n \u201cAt some point, it clicked,\u201d Craig said. \u201cWe talk about degrees of separation. It\u2019s just a few degrees, or a degree, that we\u2019re on the right side of it. We\u2019ve been playing with confidence and engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n Depth in the lineup<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a year of different guys stepping up at different times.<\/p>\n Laczynski, 28, leads the team with 63 points, fourth most in the AHL.<\/p>\n He\u2019s been the constant, whether in the AHL or when the NHL club is in a pinch \u2014 such as the first game after the Olympic break when he had three assists against the Los Angeles Kings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Top prospect Trevor Connelly overcame two significant injuries \u2014 one before the season and the other during the IIHF World Juniors tournament in December \u2014 to become a top playmaker.<\/p>\n Connelly, the AHL\u2019s rookie of the month in March, had an assist Saturday to extend his point streak to 17 games.<\/p>\n Raphael Lavoie was also the league\u2019s player of the month after a 13-goal, 20-point March.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s been buying in, night in and night out,\u201d Laczynski said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re also heading into the playoffs with reinforcements.<\/p>\n Winger Braeden Bowman was reassigned to Henderson on Wednesday following a 54-game stint with the NHL club.<\/p>\n Despite being with the Golden Knights most of the year, Bowman has kept tabs on Henderson. His roommates are center Kai Uchacz and winger Ben Hemmerling.<\/p>\n Bowman posted five points in the two games against Tucson and scored twice on Saturday, including the game-winner with 15 seconds left.<\/p>\n The last time Bowman played in Henderson was Nov. 8.<\/p>\n \u201cI think with this crew, this last year, we\u2019re building a culture where we\u2019re like brothers,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cIt was easy for me to come in and rejoin the team. The culture that we\u2019ve built, it\u2019s just next man up. It showed this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n Winger Jonas Rondbjerg returned after a lower-body injury \u2014 suffered while playing with the Golden Knights \u2014 forced him to miss two months and withdraw from representing Denmark in the Olympics.<\/p>\n The last remaining pick from the Golden Knights\u2019 inaugural draft class has been through all the highs and lows.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been two, three years since we\u2019ve (made the playoffs),\u201d Rondbjerg said. \u201cTo get to do that again is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Plenty to play for<\/p>\n Home-ice advantage in the first round is still in play with six games to go. The Silver Knights are one point back of San Jose for fourth place and two behind the Coachella Valley Firebirds for third.<\/p>\n They travel to Acrisure Arena on Wednesday to face the Firebirds. The Barracuda will be at Lee\u2019s Family Forum for a two-game set starting Friday.<\/p>\n Craig said the objective now is making sure the Knights\u2019 game is in good order over the final two weeks. The higher they finish, he said, the better hockey they\u2019re playing.<\/p>\n \u201cYou take wins any way you can get them,\u201d Craig said. \u201cWe\u2019re not just trying to get in. We\u2019re trying to get as high as we can, get as many points as we can. All we\u2019ve done is check a box, or get an \u2018X\u2019 by our name.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @DannyWebster21<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n Silver Knights up next<\/p>\n Who: Silver Knights at Firebirds<\/p>\n When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday<\/p>\n Where: Acrisure Arena, Palm Desert, California<\/p>\n TV: AHL.TV<\/p>\n Radio: KLAV 1230 AM<\/p>\n Golden Knights p next<\/p>\n Who: Golden Knights at Canucks<\/p>\n When: 7 p.m. Tuesday<\/p>\n Where: Rogers Arena, Vancouver<\/p>\n TV: KMCC-34<\/p>\n Radio: KFLG 94.7 FM\/KKGK 1340 AM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The easy answer to when the Henderson Silver Knights turned into the wagon they\u2019ve become is after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-542937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-vegas","13":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","14":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116354871708562005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}