Golden Knights take another step toward clinching Pacific Division with 2-1 win over Kraken

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ivan Barbashev and William Karlsson scored for the Golden Knights and Vegas took another step toward clinching the Pacific Division with a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.

The Golden Knights would have secured the division, but Los Angeles remained alive with a 6-1 win over Anaheim. Vegas has a six-point lead with three games remaining; the Kings have four games left. A regulation victory by the Golden Knights or regulation loss by the Kings over that span will give Vegas the division and home-ice advantage through at least the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Against Seattle, Adin Hill made 24 saves.

The Kraken scored on a wacky sequence when Jordan Eberle hit the left post and chased after his rebound. As he slid into the net, teammate Jared McCann knocked in the puck while standing at the right post. Joey Daccord had 23 saves.

Golden Knights forward Tomas Hertl played his first game since suffering an upper-body injury March 23 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He didn’t have any shots.

Vegas is 9-2-1 in its past 12 games.

Takeaways

Kraken: Seattle failed to take advantage of opportunities, not capitalizing on 10 high-danger chances over the first two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Kraken had none in the third.

Golden Knights: Hill continued his strong play by making several crucial saves. He’s 12-3-1 in his past 16 starts.

Key moment

Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb kept the puck out of the net with 17 seconds left while the Kraken were on a 6-on-5 to prevent Seattle from tying. Hill didn’t quickly get over to that side of the net.

Key stat

The Golden Knights are 18-4-1 against Pacific opponents and their final three games are in the division.

Up next

The Kraken host St. Louis on Saturday and the Golden Knights play their regular-season home finale that night against Nashville.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl