- Vegas beat Colorado 2-1 in Game 4 to finish a four-game sweep of the Western Conference Final
- Mark Stone opened the scoring on a Brayden McNabb feed and Cole Smith added insurance late in the third
- Read below for video of Stone’s goal, John Tortorella’s two-month turnaround, and what’s next for Vegas
Vegas is heading back to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Golden Knights closed out the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night, completing a four-game sweep of the Western Conference Final and booking their third trip to hockey’s championship round in nine seasons.
Mark Stone got the Knights on the board first. Brayden McNabb threaded a stretch pass through the neutral zone in the opening period, and the Vegas captain finished off the break to give them a 1-0 lead they would carry deep into the third.
Watch Stone open the scoring:
Cole Smith ended any drama. The fourth-line winger buried it with under three minutes left to make it 2-1, an insurance marker that quieted Colorado’s late push.
Colorado called on MacKenzie Blackwood in net after Scott Wedgewood took the first three losses. Blackwood kept the Avs in it with a pair of diving robberies, but the offense never produced a second goal.
For John Tortorella, the sweep caps a wild two-month run. Vegas fired Bruce Cassidy on March 29 after the team had gone 5-10-2 since the Olympic break, and Tortorella inherited a group that looked completely cooked.
He has since run through Utah in six, Anaheim in six, and now finished off the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche in four.
Tortorella’s group hasn’t reached this stage since 2023, when they handled the Florida Panthers in five games for the first Cup in franchise history. The other Final trip came in 2018, when Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals beat them in five during the Knights’ inaugural season.
Their Cup Final opponent comes out of the Eastern Conference, where Carolina leads Montreal 2-1 in the series with Game 4 set for Wednesday night at Bell Centre. Either way, Tortorella’s group gets a long rest before puck drop.
