- Carter Hart made 36 saves in Vegas’s 4-2 Game 1 win at Colorado
- John Tortorella called Hart “a hell of a goalie” and ruled out a switch to Adin Hill
- Read below for the full postgame video and what comes next in Game 2
Carter Hart bought his coach more than a Game 1 win in Denver. He bought himself the net for the rest of the Western Conference Final.
John Tortorella sat down at his Game 2 availability and didn’t bother with measured language. “Carter Hart’s a hell of a goalie,” the Knights coach said, per Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com. Tortorella added that the 27-year-old has “grown so strong mentally” since their Philly days together. “I don’t think much bothers him. He is just zeroed in, and he’s going to have to be, because we’ve got a little bit of work to do here.”
Here’s the full Game 1 postgame sound from Hart, Tortorella, Mitch Marner, Dylan Coghlan and Pavel Dorofeyev:
Vegas got the 36-save effort it needed in the 4-2 Game 1 win. Hart faced 38 shots, dealt with cramps late, and finished the game anyway. He robbed Nazem Kadri on a wide-open look at the end of the first period and held Colorado off the board through 40 minutes.
He’s 9-4 this postseason with a 2.35 goals-against and a .920 save percentage. He’s also been the only goalie Vegas has used in the playoffs, every single start.
The question of Adin Hill came up too. The 2023 Stanley Cup-winning goalie has been parked behind Hart all postseason, and Tortorella’s answer about that arrangement was short:
The Knights coach expanded on it for the room. “’Hilly,’ he’s a Stanley Cup winner, right? We have trust in him. We haven’t gone there. We felt Carter has played that well, so we’ve stayed with him. It’s not like you’re trying to fix something that isn’t broke.”
That endorsement caps a long detour for Hart. Philadelphia took him 48th overall in 2016, he sat out the entire 2024-25 season, and Vegas signed him to a two-year, $4 million deal last October. Now he’s the last line between his team and a Stanley Cup Final berth, with Game 2 set for Friday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
