Golden Knights Sweep Avalanche to Reach NHL Stanley Cup Final, Recap, Stats & Highlights From Game 4

The Vegas Golden Knights completed a stunning sweep of the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, defeating the Presidents' Trophy winners 2-1 in Game 4 of the NHL's Western Conference Finals on Tuesday from T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

Right wing and team captain Mark Stone scored the game's first goal at 4:42 of the first period off assists from Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore. McNabb executed a tremendous pass to get Stone behind the defense, and the 14-year veteran took care of the rest.

Stone missed five playoff games with a lower body injury before returning to the lineup in Game 3. He made his presence known quickly with a goal and an assist in a 5-3 win before adding the Game 4 tally.

Neither team scored for nearly 50 minutes of game action, but Vegas left wing Cole Smith ended that stretch by adding the Golden Knights' second goal with 5:45 remaining in the third period.

Dylan Coghlan and Nic Dowd contributed the assists. Coghlan shot the puck at the net, and Smith executed a perfect deflection for the eventual game-winning goal.

Colorado wasn't done yet, though, as Gabriel Landeskog got the Avs on the board with 2:03 on an empty-netter off assists from Martin Necas and Nadem Kazri. Necas shot the puck toward the net, and Landeskog deflected it down and passed Vegas goalie Carter Hart.

Colorado could only muster one shot on goal from that point forward, though, and Vegas moved onto the Stanley Cup Final.

Hart made 20 saves on 21 shots for his sixth straight victory. Avs goalie Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 24 of 26 shots.

This is an incredible run for the Western Conference champions, who have now made the Stanley Cup Final three times since entering the league in 2017.

On March 28, it wasn't even a guarantee that the Golden Knights would make the playoffs. They had lost six of their last seven games and were only four points away from being outside the playoff picture.

Vegas then made a massive switch, parting ways with head coach Bruce Cassidy and bringing in John Tortorella. The Golden Knights responded by winning seven of eight games, with the only loss being a shutout defeat to the Seattle Kraken.

That late-season run was good enough for Vegas to win the Pacific Division. The Golden Knights defeated the Utah Mammoth and Anaheim Ducks in six games in each of the first two playoff series before crushing the Avs, outscoring them 14-7 over four contests.

It wasn't the greatest regular season for the Golden Knights. Their 39-game regular-season win total is the lowest for a Stanley Cup finalist in an 80-plus game season since the 2001-02 Carolina Hurricanes (35).

However, that's all moot now as the Golden Knights just thoroughly out-played an Avs team that had 36 more points than them this regular season.

As for Colorado, this is a stunning defeat. Colorado had just two regulation losses through its first 40 games (31-2-7) and finished with a 55-16-11 record (121 points). Colorado continues its dominance in the postseason, sweeping the Los Angeles Kings (allowing just five goals in the process) and then beating the Minnesota Wild in five games (24 goals scored).

For whatever reason, the tremendous talent and excellence the Avs showcased for seven-plus months didn't appear against Vegas.

With that, the President' Trophy curse continued. The 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks are the last Presidents' Trophy-winning team to even make a Stanley Cup Final, let alone win it. The last team to win the Presidents' Trophy and Stanley Cup in a full 82-game season was the 2007-08 Detroit Red Wings.

While the Avs will go home earlier than expected, the Golden Knights move on and await the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes, who lead the best-of-seven series two games to one.