ST. PAUL, Minn. — Late in the second period of a tied, tight-checking game on Thursday, in which open ice was hard to come by and scoring chances were scarce, Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone made one of the best passes of the NHL season.
At the moment Stone released the pass from his defensive zone, Jack Eichel had yet to cross his own blue line.
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Stone lofted the puck into the air with enough steam to sail it just inches past the stick blade of a diving Kiril Kaprizov, but with enough touch for it to settle perfectly for Eichel at the top of the circles on the other end of the ice.
Eichel caught the 70-something-foot saucer pass in stride for a breakaway, skated in and beat Minnesota Filip Gustavsson to break a 1-1 tie. The Golden Knights went on to win 3-2 — with Stone playing a key role in all three goals — and close out their first-round series against the Minnesota Wild in six games.
“He just let me skate right into it,” Eichel said of the pass. “It was a great play by him, and a great play by (defenseman Brayden McNabb) in our own zone. We were able to attack off of a turnover, and Stoney made a great play. It was a big goal.”
JACK EICHEL HAS ENTERED THE CHAT 🎰 pic.twitter.com/Oi1ONRq6eb
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 2, 2025
After a slow start to the series, Stone and Eichel emerged and carried Vegas to yet another playoff series win.
“He’s the heartbeat of the team for sure,” McNabb said. “He’s our leader. He’s the captain. When (he and Eichel are) going, we’re a great team.”
Stone, Eichel and the Golden Knights were great on Thursday. They waltzed into a hostile environment at Xcel Energy Center, against a talented Minnesota team that had given them all they could handle to date in the series, and made clutch play after clutch play to eliminate them.
“That’s a very good team over there,” Vegas goalie Adin Hill said. “They play a hard game. They play their system very well, so they made it challenging for us. I think that’s good for us to run into that early, build some character and move onto the next series.”
Minnesota played a structured defensive game that suffocated Vegas’ dangerous transition offense for the vast majority of the six games. The Wild used their size and strength to bully their way to the front of both nets, and through three games, it looked like it might be enough to upset the Pacific Division champs. At that point Minnesota’s top players — Kaprizov and Matt Boldy — were outplaying Vegas’ top players.
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Through three games, Stone and Eichel were both held without a point, and had a minus-5 rating. On Thursday night, they combined for four points and didn’t allow a goal while they were on the ice.
“If you look at the three games,” coach Bruce Cassidy said, “our top guys were a lot more productive and impactful than the first three games, and that’s probably the biggest story right there. The goaltender (Adin Hill), (Shea) Theodore, Eichel, Stone, all of them. They got better as the series went on, and it culminated tonight.”
Theodore opened the scoring for the Golden Knights on Thursday with a perfectly-placed shot on the power play. Stone was in front of the net screening Gustavsson, and Theodore picked the top left corner of the net.
If his screen on that play, and his gorgeous assist on Eichel’s goal to break the 1-1 tie in the second period, weren’t enough, Stone scored the eventual game-winning goal by batting a pass out of the air and into the Minnesota net to give Vegas a 3-1 lead.
Eichel had just missed a grade-A opportunity to extend Vegas’ lead, but the Golden Knights kept the pressure on. McNabb activated deep into Minnesota’s zone and threw a knee-high pass into traffic in front of the crease. Stone knocked it out of the air and into the net.
HUGE GOAL FROM THE CAPTAIN!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Wa6ALZP6W8
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 2, 2025
“It was a great play by him,” McNabb said. “I just kind of threw it in there, and he’s got great eye-hand coordination and he was able to put it in. It was a big play to get a 3-1 lead.”
As he always does, Stone exploded with emotion following the goal. Even the stitches and swelling around his eye from a brutal high stick earlier in the series couldn’t hold back Stone’s euphoria as he bear-hugged McNabb.
“He’s our emotional leader,” Hill said. “You see how fired up he gets when he scores. It’s pretty awesome.”
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Stone and Eichel didn’t just bring the offense late in the series. They also matched up with Minnesota’s electric top line and neutralized them down the stretch. After totaling seven points in the first three games, Kaprizov had only two in the final three games — and zero in Game 6.
“We all know Stoney’s game and how good he can be defensively with his stick,” Eichel said. “That line gave us a lot of problems throughout the series, and give them credit. It was good for us to try and shut them down. It’s a big part of their offense.”
Hill was among the group of Vegas’ most important players who improved as the series went. He stopped 29 of 31 shots on Thursday, including several key saves to hold onto the lead in the third period. It was enough for Vegas to earn its 61st postseason victory, which puts them behind only Tampa Bay since the Golden Knights entered the league in 2017. They are moving onto the second round for an impressive fifth time in eight seasons.
Nothing came easy for them in this series. Both teams were so buttoned-up defensively that the best players had to fight for every inch. Vegas’ best players did just that to close it out. And, as he usually does, Stone led the way.
“We’ve seen Stoney do that,” Cassidy said. “He has a tremendous hockey IQ. Even his hand-eye coordination on the third goal.
“It just took some of those guys a little longer, and that happens for different reasons in every series. Credit to Minnesota for doing what they had to do, and credit to our guys for finding a way. In such a tight series, that’s probably the biggest storyline.”
(Photo of Mark Stone and Marc-Andre Fleury: Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images)
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