Golden Knights End Regular Season With Win, Await Playoff Fate

The Vegas Golden Knights took care of business on Wednesday night, wrapping up the 2021 regular season with a 6-0 win over the San Jose Sharks. Vegas must now hope for help from the LA Kings against the Colorado Avalanche in order to win the Honda West Division title.

Vegas finishes with 82 points on the season, while Colorado has 80 points with one game remaining against the Kings. Colorado also took down Los Angeles on Wednesday. If the Avalanche gets two points, they would tie Vegas in both points and ROW. Things then go to the next tiebreaker, which is points in the regular-season series head-to-head. Because the March 27 game was won by Vegas in overtime, Colorado has one extra point in the season series and would finish first.

Dylan Sikura scored twice to lead the VGK offense, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 19 saves for his 67th career shutout.

The Takeaways:

• Marc-Andre Fleury looked fantastic. He’s been a rock all season long and finishes with a strong nine-game regular-season winning streak.
• Fleury and Robin Lehner have secured the William Jennings Trophy, awarded to the team that allows the fewest goals against during the regular season. Vegas finished with 124 goals against, four fewer than the New York Islanders.
• Dylan Sikura’s goals were his second and third career NHL goals.
• Alex Pietrangelo played his best hockey down the stretch, finishing with points in seven of his last ten games and looking as comfortable as he has all season. It’s good to see him rounding into form at the best possible time.
• As I watched the Sharks, I kept wondering about whether or not they’re going to move on from the contracts of either Erik Karlsson or Brent Burns next year. What’s the worst that could happen? You miss the playoffs with more cap room? The Sharks are not a good team. It’s time to rebuild.
• The VGK had something to prove tonight and came out hard. They played well and were able to roll four lines with success. Now they need to get healthy and ready for a playoff challenge.