The Golden Knights extinguish the Kings

Hertl's four points snuff the Kings again

A grudge on qualification night

The Los Angeles Kings came to T-Mobile Arena with a score to settle. Last season the Vegas Golden Knights beat them 4-3 in the round of 16 and ended their run. Now the shelves were full again, all 32 candles lit, and one of these two flames would not see a second round. The Kings had finished 12th of 32 last season, two places above Vegas. None of that mattered once the puck dropped.

Six minutes, three goals

Joel Edmundson went off for slashing at 8:24 of the first. At 9:07 Tomas Hertl backhanded a power-play goal. Andre Lee sat for holding at 13:37, and 14 seconds later Mark Stone tipped in the goal that held up as the winner. Then, 1:21 after that, Pavel Dorofeyev snapped off a wrist shot for 3-0, with Hertl assisting on both.

Los Angeles outshot Vegas 35 to 30, but Ilya Samsonov turned away 34. The only puck that got past him came from Warren Foegele's wrist shot at 19:07 of the second, 23:55 after the previous goal.

The third goes dark

Vegas answered in the third. Alexander Holtz snapped one in at 2:59. Hertl scored his second, a wrist shot, at 8:26. Ivan Barbashev's snap shot at 13:25 made it six, and Alex Pietrangelo assisted on all three. The Kings' candle went cold, and the Golden Knights burned on as one of 16 flames left.