The Golden Knights did not waste their second chance to end Utah’s season.
Vegas beat the Utah Mammoth 5-1 on Friday at Delta Center, closing the first-round series in six games. What started as a tight, low-margin game turned into a clean finish, and the Knights advanced by doing what they failed to do often enough earlier in the series: they settled the game down before Utah could drag it sideways.
Mitch Marner scored twice and added an assist. Carter Hart stopped 22 of 23 shots. Meanwhile, the Knights got another big goal from Brett Howden and a response goal from Colton Sissons after Utah tried to pull the building back into the game.
“We simplified things,” head coach John Tortorella said. “We just tried to go north, tried to play behind the net.”
That was the story of the clincher. Vegas did not need perfect. It needed direct.
Marner gets his moment
Marner had been helping Vegas all series, even before the goals arrived. However, Game 6 gave him the score sheet to match the details.
Howden opened the scoring at 15:02 of the first period after Marner’s shot created a rebound off the end boards. Howden found the loose puck and scored, extending his goal streak to three games.
Then Marner gave Vegas breathing room late in the second. After a long offensive-zone shift wore Utah down, Ivan Barbashev found Marner in space, and Marner ripped home his first goal of the playoffs with 45 seconds left in the period.
“I think it was two lines that went out there and really just put their force down,” Marner said. “Cycled the puck well, made plays when they were there.”
That goal mattered because it changed the intermission. Instead of protecting a one-goal lead, Vegas entered the third up 2-0.
Tortorella called it “a really important part of the game.”
Hart holds the line
Before the game opened up, Hart kept it tight.
Utah had looks early. Hart made a right-pad save on Clayton Keller in the opening minute and later handled traffic as the Mammoth tried to push. He also stayed calm after Vegas had stretches of sloppy puck management through the middle of the game.
“Just stop the next puck,” Hart said of his mindset.
That simplicity matched the team in front of him. Hart finished with a .957 save percentage and helped Vegas kill all three Utah power plays.
The penalty kill was not just useful in Game 6. It helped define the series. Tortorella said Johnny Stevens had “a really good game plan,” and he pointed to blocked shots, key saves and two important short-handed goals across the matchup.
“They gained momentum off of it, but we stayed with it,” Tortorella said.
The answer goal
Utah finally broke through at 7:41 of the third when Kailer Yamamoto cut the Vegas lead to 2-1. The building had a reason to rise, and the Mammoth had a path back into the game.
Vegas shut that path almost immediately.
Sissons scored at 9:40, burying a rebound from Brayden McNabb’s shot to restore the two-goal lead. Kaedan Korczak also assisted on the play.
That response was the clincher inside the clincher. It came from the line Tortorella said he may no longer be able to call the fourth line.
“I think we were pretty darn effective in making it hard on them,” Sissons said. “Getting to our forecheck and just leaning on them game after game.”
Mark Stone saw the same thing. Once Utah made it 2-1, Vegas did not shrink.
“We’ve been here before,” Stone said. “We don’t have the panic maybe some teams do.”
The game breaks open
After Sissons pushed it to 3-1, Vegas finally cracked the game open.
Marner scored again at 12:09 on the power play, finding a rebound after Shea Theodore’s shot was blocked. Jack Eichel also assisted, and Vegas finished 1-for-2 on the power play.
For Marner, the two-goal night came with a clear takeaway.
“Just trust yourself more to shoot more,” Marner said.
Cole Smith added an empty-net goal at 16:24 to make it 5-1. By then, the close game had become a blowout, and the Knights had taken the air out of Delta Center.
Vegas outscored Utah 3-1 in the third period. It also won 61.1% of the faceoffs and held Utah to 23 shots.
Built for the moment
The series did not move in a straight line for Vegas.
The Knights trailed 2-1 after Game 3. Then they won Game 4 in overtime after blowing a three-goal lead. They survived Game 5 in double overtime. Finally, in Game 6, they looked like a team that had learned enough from the chaos.
Hart called the group “resilient.” Sissons said the Knights trusted their game. Stone pointed to depth.
“You look at the game sheet, contributions up and down the lineup from everybody,” Stone said.
That is how Vegas closed the series. Marner starred, Hart steadied it and the depth lines kept pushing the game into safer ice.
Now the opponent changes. The standard does not.
Up next
The Golden Knights will face the Anaheim Ducks in the second round after Anaheim beat the Edmonton Oilers in six games. The schedule was not available at press time.
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Dice City Sports editor Mark Hebert covers the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Raiders, Athletics, and UNLV baseball and softball. He has 24 years of journalism experience, is also a senior reporter at Exhibit City News, and previously covered the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Follow him on X or connect on LinkedIn.
