Golden Knights defeat Kraken, win Pacific Division, Western Conference

The Vegas Golden Knights clinched the Pacific Division and the top seed in the Western Conference with a 3-1 win against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Thursday.

"It's important to celebrate things like this. It's a long season," Vegas defenseman Alec Martinez said. "It's a testament to a lot of strong, consistent hockey and commitment over the course of seven months, 82 games. It's a long time. It's important to enjoy it. But we haven't won anything yet."
Reilly Smith scored his 200th NHL goal, and Laurent Brossoit made 30 saves for the Golden Knights (51-22-9), who will play the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"Proud of the guys. We won all we could win in terms of regular season," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I know the players want to relax and take a breather. As coaches, you're always looking at the next challenge. It happens to be the Winnipeg Jets. We haven't seen them in a long time in terms of playing them (Dec. 13). We want to get to playing that."
Jaden Schwartz scored, and Philipp Grubauer made 16 saves for the Kraken (46-28-8), who will play either the Colorado Avalanche or Dallas Stars in the first round.
"We looked like ourselves tonight," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "At the end of the day, we did a ton of really good things. We played with good pace. Overall, [we] defended pretty well. A couple broken plays in the third is all we gave up."

Smith gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 9:56 of the first period when Vince Dunn's attempt to clear the puck from behind his own net deflected off Smith's skate and between Grubauer's legs.
"I was shocked. We put in so much time and energy playing soccer before the game," Smith said. "It's nice to see it pay off. I got a little nervous when they were checking if it was a kick. It's gone the opposite way for me so many times, so it's nice to get a bounce there."
Schwartz tied it 1-1 at 16:20 with a one-timer from the left face-off circle.
Martinez scored short-handed on a rebound in front to give Vegas a 2-1 lead at 12:37 of the second period.
Chandler Stephenson redirected pass by Seattle forward Jared McKann from inside Vegas blue line for an empty-net goal at 19:22 of the third period for the 3-1 final.
The Golden Knights won their third Pacific Division title, had a franchise record 111 points and tied their record for wins in a season (51). They have made the playoffs in five of their first six seasons.
"We made big strides from where we ended in the regular season last year," Smith said. "We always believed in this group. There's a still a lot of work to be done, but I don't think this should be understated. We should take a day to celebrate it."

NOTES:The Kraken announced after the game that forward Andre Burakovsky would miss the start of the playoffs after having surgery to address a recurring lower-body injury. Burakovsky hasn't played since Feb. 7. … Brossoit went 7-0-3 in 11 games (10 starts) this season, the most starts without a regulation loss since Jean-Sebastien Aubin went 9-0-2 for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2005-06. … Vegas also won 51 games but had 109 points in its inaugural season of 2017-18. … The Golden Knights swept the home-and-home series with the Kraken and finished the regular season with an eight-game point streak (5-0-3). … Vegas is the third franchise in NHL history with at least three division titles in its first six seasons (Edmonton Oilers, four, 1981-85; Boston Bruins, three, 1927-30). … Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel returned after missing two games with an upper-body injury. He had an assist and two shots in 17:58. … Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore had two shots and blocked two shots in 17:22 after missing seven games with a lower-body injury. … The Kraken finished with 100 points, a 40-point increase from last season, when they went 27-49-6 as an expansion team.