Knights punch ticket for playoffs

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In Las Vegas Monday night, the Golden Knights made it official, they are going to the playoffs as an expansion franchise.

They punched their ticket with a 4-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche.

“We’ve been surprising not only us, but the whole league all season,” Vegas’ Jonathan Marchessault said. “I knew around December we were going to be good, and we just wanted to keep going against the odds.”

The Vegas  win helped them keep the San Jose Sharks at a six-point difference in the race for the Pacific Division lead.

“It’s about the next game and getting two more points,” coach Gerard Gallant said when asked about the importance of winning the Pacific Division. “The goal is there. We’ve just got to keep battling. I’m not going to be devastated if that didn’t happen, but if that didn’t happen, that means we’re not playing good hockey and I expect us to play good hockey.”

Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves to pick up the win.

“I was hoping we could battle for a place in the playoffs,” Fleury said. “We’ve been playing hard all season long and the confidence in our team continues to grow and our expectations are higher. It’s nice. It’s fun that we did it.”

William Karlsson (40), Shea Theodore, Alex Tuch, and Marchessault scored for the Knights.

“Before this season, I didn’t think I’d score 40, to be honest,” Karlsson said. “I wanted to score more than six goals (his total in 81 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets last season). Safe to say I did that.”

Erik Johnson scored the lone goal for the Avs.

Colorado still holds the second wild card spot in the Western Conference but only by a point over the St Louis Blues.

“They’re all tough when you need the points and don’t get them,” Avs head coach Jared Bednar said. “We got away from our game trying to do too much early.”

[WATCH: All Avalanche vs. Golden Knights highlights]

Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves in the loss.

“I think those were two intense hockey games. It’s the way it goes. We managed to get two hard-earned points [Saturday],” Bednar said of the game.