SALT LAKE CITY – Mitch Marner had two goals and an assist, Carter Hart made 21 saves and Vegas Golden Knights beat the Utah Mammoth 5-1 on Friday night in Game 6 to wrap up the first-round series.
Vegas will face Anaheim in the second round. The Ducks advanced Thursday night with a 5-2 home victory over Edmonton in Game 6.
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The Golden Knights have surged since John Tortorella took over as coach from the fired Bruce Cassidy, closing the regular season 7-0-1 after the change. They ripped off three straight wins after Utah took a 2-1 series lead.
“This is what I hoped for,” Marner said. “There’s a lot more work to keep going.”
Marner had two goals and five assists in the series. Friday was the first multi-goal playoff game for the Vegas forward since April 20, 2023, against Tampa Bay.
“It was his best game of the series. He just looked comfortable,” Tortorella said.
Brett Howden opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the series, all coming over the last three games. Colton Sissons added a third-period goal for Vegas soon after Utah’s Kailer Yamamoto cut it to 2-1. Cole Smith capped the scoring with an empty-netter on the heels of Marner converting a power play for his second goal.
“We’ve been here before,” Vegas captain Mark Stone said. “We don’t have the panic. Maybe some teams do. We can calm ourselves pretty quickly.”
Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves for Utah. The Mammoth led in the third period in each of the first five games before trailing the whole way in Game 6.
“I didn’t have that in my bingo card,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I was really confident we would go to Vegas tomorrow.”
Howden scored with 4:58 left in the first period. Marner’s shot went to the right of the goal and rebounded out front for Howden to put a wrist shot home.
On Wednesday night in Game 5, Howden scored the winner in the Golden Knights’ 5-4 double-overtime victory. Vegas also won 5-4 in overtime in Game 4 after getting two goals from him in regulation.
Marner made it 2-0 with 45 seconds left in the second after Vegas had the puck in Utah’s end for more than two minutes. He blasted a slap shot from the top of the right circle off Ian Cole’s knee and into the net.
“I’ve had a couple opportunities in that same area that I had just missed on,” Marner said. “That’s why I just decided to quickly wind one up and see if I could get a clapper through.”
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl