Adin Hill's big game delivers Golden Knights to second round of playoffs

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill watches the play during the first period of Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. Photo by: ASSOCIATED PRESS

The three members of the Minnesota Wild’s explosive top line collectively averaged two goals per game through the first five contests of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek had been the best unit in the matchup, also combining for 19 points.

But the trio had none in a decisive 3-2 Golden Knights’ victory Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

Vegas goalie Adin Hill denied the opposing stars all night long in his best game of the postseason so far, logging 29 saves. Minnesota presented a lot of problems over the last week and a half, but the Pacific Division champion Vegas side still escaped the wild-card team with a 4-2 victory in the best-of-seven series.

The Golden Knights are officially moving on to the second round for the fifth time in the franchise’s eight-year history, and first since winning the Stanley Cup in 2023.

They’ll play the winner of the Los Angeles Kings vs. Edmonton Oilers in another best-of-seven setup with Game 1 at a to-be-announced date early next week at T-Mobile Arena.

The victory over the Wild was the Golden Knights’ 10^th ever playoff-series victory. It certainly wasn’t the cleanest.

The Wild even finished the set of six games with a +1 goal differential, but the Golden Knights won a pair of overtime games and continually found ways to prevail no matter how ugly.

In Game 6, the path to victory was relying on Hill. The Wild posted more shots on goal than the Golden Knights (31-23) and high-danger chances (13-9 per naturalstattrick.com) but the 28-year-old goaltender kept turning them away.

He had a few big saves on Kaprizov and Boldy, who combined for nine shots on goal. For perhaps the first time in the series, the Golden Knights’ two top forwards (Jack Eichel and Mark Stone) were more dominant.

Vegas never trailed as defenseman Shea Theodore started the scoring on a power-play rocket from the slot at 3:30 of the first period, his second goal of the postseason. Eichel set the sequence into motion and was credited with a secondary assist.

Wild second-line center Ryan Hartman equalized in the final seconds of the frame with a one-timer off a pass from winger Marcus Foligno. Hartman was the only player to beat Hill all night as he also scored in the final minutes to add suspense and require Hill to stand up to a final barrage of shots. 

The tie that came out of Hartman's first goal lasted less than five minutes as Eichel came out of the first intermission looking fresh and fast, beating Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson on a breakaway off a pass from Stone.

Gustavsson made a handful of worthy saves on the night but wasn’t on Hill’s level overall. He wound up with 20 stops on 23 shots faced coming off a Game 5 performance where he left early with illness.

Stone was the final player to get a puck past Gustavsson as the Golden Knights’ captain stationed himself in front of the net and knocked in a pass from defenseman Brayden McNabb.

A penalty drawn by McNabb — a double-minor high-sticking on Marco Rossi — set up Theodore’s initial power-play goal.

Minnesota played just as well as Vegas on the series as a whole, but made a few too many mistakes. And Vegas got enough different contributions on a game-by-game basis to advance.

Hill stepped up for the biggest night in Game 6.