Graney: Golden Knights write perfect script for how to beat Avalanche

DENVER — If you want the perfect recipe, this was it.

This is how you beat the Colorado Avalanche.

This is how you win Game 1 in a best-of-seven Western Conference Final at Ball Arena.

This is how you outplay the best team in hockey.

If this is how the Vegas Golden Knights are going to perform, we’re in for one heck of a series.

They were far from perfect. But their execution in certain aspects was spot on.

They took out the Avalanche 4-2 on Wednesday night to steal home ice advantage and send a clear message: They’re definitely good enough to hang and then some.

“Most of the guys have seen it and felt it,” Knights coach John Tortorella said. “I think it’s sometimes easier for the away team to play in these situations, and you can use it to your advantage. They understand the situation. It doesn’t need to be explained to them. They just go out and play.”

And, as they accomplished Wednesday, do all the little things to beat a favored side.

Grind away

You get depth scoring and win the special teams battle and receive stellar goalie play and block shots.

Your stars make important plays.

You grind.

The Knights did and had it all.

“Listen, we had some major inconsistencies,” Tortorella said. “We didn’t play a flawless game by any means. … We have work to do. Nice to get the first one under your belt and get a win, but we have plenty of work to do playing against that team.”

It might not have been flawless, but it was certainly good.

And there were several reasons why.

You can begin with Carter Hart, who was again terrific in goal by stopping 36 of 38 shots. You can’t overstate his importance to the overall cause.

His value to what is transpiring this postseason.

“Just trying to give my team a chance,” Hart said. “We know they’re a good team. We know they have a lot of skill. We respect that, but you can’t respect them too much. You just look at the play and see it develop and try to stop the next puck. Just battle and compete.

“It was huge for us to get rolling and start off the right way and now just build off that.”

Those in front of him were about as good as they could be.

The Knights blocked 23 shots. Got into lanes. Sacrificed their bodies. Tied up sticks. Checked fairly well, something you have to do for long stretches against such a dangerous team as the Avalanche.

Bottom line: Colorado might have owned much of the possession time, but Vegas did what it needed when the Avalanche kept trying (and failing) to solve Hart.

Let’s also say no one had this on their BINGO card: That third-line defenseman Dylan Coghlan would score the series’ first goal. Or score at all. He hadn’t in an NHL game since December 2021.

But there’s the ultimate example of depth scoring, the kind Vegas should covet throughout this series.

Guys you don’t expect doing special things.

You need such moments like this to win a series.

You need them to beat an opponent like this four times.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Coghlan said. “Honestly, I didn’t know it went in until I turned to (defenseman Shea Theodore) and he smiled at me. Then I just blacked out for a second.”

Worked out

Vegas couldn’t have written a better script for how the game played out. It killed two of three power plays from Colorado.

The Knights got their own power-play score when star forward Mitch Marner made a great play in finding Pavel Dorofeyev for his NHL-leading 10th goal of these playoffs.

So you have Coghlan scoring here, and the top-level tandem of Marner-Dorofeyev doing so there.

It all just sort of worked for the Knights.

“Just try and take care of myself tonight, like I’m sure we all are,” Marner said. “It’s a very hard team we’re playing against. We know that. They’re going to come with even more next game so we have to be ready for that. Just go out there and have confidence and swagger.”

They wrote the perfect recipe on Wednesday night for how to beat Colorado.

Little things matter in sports. Things that don’t always show up on a scoresheet.

Not a bad way to begin what should be a fantastic series.