Vegas Golden Knights (36-26-17) @ Colorado Avalanche (52-16-10)\u00a0<\/p>\n
6 p.m.\u00a0MT |\u00a0Ball Arena\u00a0| Watch:\u00a0ABC, ESPN App\u00a0| Listen: Altitude Sports Radio (92.5 FM)\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Avalanche concludes its two-game homestand when it hosts the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday. This is the final Heritage Series game of the season, as the Avs will don its Nordiques jerseys for the last time in 2025-26. Saturday\u2019s contest is the third and final\u00a0regular-season\u00a0meeting\u00a0between the Avalanche\u00a0and Golden Knights, as Colorado won\u00a04-2 in Las Vegas on October 31st\u00a0and 6-5 in a shootout in Nevada on December 27th.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Latest Result (COL):\u00a0CGY 1, COL 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Latest Result (VGK):\u00a0VGK 3, SEA 4 (SO)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two Points on Thursday\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Avalanche defeated the Calgary Flames 3-1 at Ball Arena on Thursday to clinch the Presidents\u2019 Trophy. Gabriel Landeskog, Martin\u00a0Necas\u00a0and Nathan MacKinnon each scored a goal for Colorado, while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced in net.\u00a0The Avs opened the scoring on the power play at 18:44 of the first period when Landeskog scored his 13th\u00a0goal of the season via a shot from the right doorstep set up by MacKinnon\u2019s cross-crease feed.\u00a0Necas doubled Colorado\u2019s lead at 15:01 of the second period with his 38th\u00a0goal of the season via a shot from the right doorstep after making a toe-drag move to split two Flames defenders. With Calgary\u2019s net empty, Tyson Gross put the Flames on the board at\u00a017:08 of the third period via a backhand shot from the doorstep. Calgary momentarily tied the game with a goal at\u00a018:12 of the third period, but the tally was taken off the board after a success Avs challenge for offside. MacKinnon gave the Avs a 3-1 lead at\u00a019:05 of the third period with his career-best 52nd\u00a0goal of the season\u00a0via a net-front deflection on an empty net.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leading the Way\u00a0
\nNate the Great\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacKinnon leads the NHL in goals (52) while ranking third in points (126) and assists (74).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wedgewall\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among goaltenders with at least 24 games played this season, Scott Wedgewood leads the NHL in save percentage (.918) and goals-against average (2.10).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marty Party\u00a0<\/p>\n
Necas is tied for seventh in the NHL in points (98).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Series History\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 30 regular-season games against the Golden Knights, the Avalanche has a record of 18-10-2. The teams have met\u00a0in one playoff series\u00a0in addition to a 2020 Western Conference Round Robin\u00a0game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Shootout in Seattle\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Golden Knights lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Seattle Kraken\u00a0on Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena. Mark Stone opened the scoring for Vegas with a goal at 10:04 of the first period and doubled the Golden Knights\u2019 lead on the power play at 55 seconds of the middle frame. Jared McCann put the\u00a0Kraken on the board with a power-play goal at 17:54\u00a0of\u00a0the second period. In the third period, Brett Howden gave the Golden Knights a 3-1 lead at 1:11 before the Kraken tied the game after tallies from Berkly Catton at 6:11 and\u00a0Bobby McMann at 9:16. In the fifth round of the shootout, Catton scored the game-winning goal for the Kraken.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Creating Goals Against the Golden Knights\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacKinnon has posted 30 points (8g\/22a) in 30 regular-season games against the Golden Knights, in addition to seven points (3g\/4a) in seven playoff contests.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Necas has recorded 11 points (5g\/6a) in 12 contests against Vegas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brock Nelson has registered 12 points (8g\/4a) in 17 games against the Golden Knights.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lighting the Lamp in Las Vegas\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jack Eichel leads the Golden Knights in points (83) and assists (58) while ranking third in goals (25).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pavel Dorofeyev leads Vegas in goals (35) and ranks fourth in assists (62).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mitch Marner is second on the Golden Knights in\u00a0points (78) and assists (55) while ranking fifth in goals (23).\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Numbers Game\u00a0
\n20\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacKinnon\u2019s 20 games this season with at least three points are the most in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
51\u00a0<\/p>\n
Colorado\u2019s 51 goals allowed since March 1st\u00a0are tied for the second fewest in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
27.1%\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Avalanche\u2019s 27.1% mark on the power play since March 1st\u00a0ranks sixth\u00a0in the\u00a0NHL.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quote That Left a Mark\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0not going to celebrate too much.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0obviously an accomplishment. We had a good regular season.\u00a0You\u2019re\u00a0the top team after 82 games, but at the end of the day, going into the\u00a0playoffs it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0really mean much.\u00a0Everybody\u2019s\u00a0going to start fresh,\u00a0everybody\u2019s\u00a0starting 0-0, and get a chance to prove yourselves again. I think if anything.\u00a0it\u00a0fuels us knowing that\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0won a lot of hockey games in a lot of\u00a0different ways. I think\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0important to remember.\u00a0You\u2019re\u00a0not winning the Presidents\u2019 Trophy if you\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0been finding ways to win hockey games.\u00a0We\u2019ll\u00a0enjoy it tonight and move forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
— Gabriel Landeskog on the Avalanche clinching the Presidents’ Trophy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vegas Golden Knights (36-26-17) @ Colorado Avalanche (52-16-10)\u00a0 6 p.m.\u00a0MT |\u00a0Ball Arena\u00a0| Watch:\u00a0ABC, ESPN App\u00a0| Listen: Altitude Sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-550310","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\/116386191406076614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550310","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=550310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}