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LAS VEGAS (AP) The Vegas Golden Knights chose to celebrate a monumental moment for the franchise by thinking back to how its inaugural season began – hoping the new hockey team could bring smiles to a city reeling from tragedy.Shortly after Vegas became the first expansion team to clinch a playoff berth with a 4-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night Karl Alzner Jersey Womens , the mantra in the locker room was the same as the one adopted shortly before the team’s home opener:”Vegas Strong.”Team owner Bill Foley, veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and leading scorer William Karlsson were among those who thought back Monday to the Oct. 1 mass shooting that killed 58 and injured hundreds more on the Las Vegas Strip.”It was a disaster that night, it was a terrible massacre, we changed our initial opening night ceremonies, I thought we really connected with the town – I’m so proud of the whole team,” Foley said. ”From then on, it was pretty unbelievable. We got off to that fast start. We’ve survived a lot of challenges this year, besides being an expansion team who nobody picked to do anything.”No expansion team had ever made the playoffs since the league expanded for the 1967-68 season.”It doesn’t bring anybody back or we don’t heal anybody,” Fleury said. ”But I hope that we’ve changed people’s mind a bit and get them to come here and have a good time at T-Mobile (Arena) and be proud of their hometown team.”Alex Tuch, Jonathan Marchessault, Shea Theodore and Karlsson each scored, while Fleury improved to 28-11-4 after stopping 28 shots.It was also the 200th career victory for coach Gerard Gallant.”I’m really happy about making the playoffs, the 200th win doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Gallant said. ”We always go back to our first home game. It wasn’t about our team winning Joel Armia Jersey Womens , it wasn’t about nothing – it was about the first responders and the tragedy that happened the week before that.”It was a tough way to start our season, but I think the guys and everybody supported it well. They all came out and played an unbelievable game that first night and I just think it carried over.”The Golden Knights host San Jose on Saturday and are six points in front of the Sharks in the Pacific Division. San Jose beat Chicago in overtime earlier Monday.Erik Johnson scored for the Avalanche and Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves.Colorado is 11-7-3 against the Pacific Division and dropped to 7-3-3 in March. The Avalanche are still riding a 9-3-3 streak but had a three-game road winning streak snapped.The Avalanche are fourth in the Central Division but dropped to the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, just behind Los Angeles, which beat Calgary.”I’m not going to talk about a first-round (playoff) matchup, we gotta get there first,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. ”I would have liked to add another point or two tonight, but we weren’t able to get it done.”Tuch was in the right spot on Vegas’ first power play to punch home a loose puck and give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. Colorado tied it when Johnson was there to fire in a rebound.Vegas went back up 2-1 when Marchessault beat Varlamov with a slick wrist shot. Vegas has scored with a man advantage in 20 of its last 31 games. Since Jan. 21, the Golden Knights lead the league with a power-play percentage of 30.4.The Golden Knights wasted no time in extending their lead in the third period, when Erik Haula fed a streaking Theodore, who put one past Varlamov at the 1:31 mark.Karlsson closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal, his 40th of the season.”It feels pretty incredible, it’s good to clinch it at home ice,” Karlsson said. ”It’s been a fun ride, obviously winning helps it. We had a great start and that set us off for the rest of the year. I think the whole city came together Torey Krug Jersey , the fans have been great, and they’ve helped us a lot. They fired us up and it was momentum all the way.”NOTES: The Avalanche had three players skate in milestone games, as Landeskog played in his 500th game, Tyson Barrie played in his 400th, and Gabriel Bourque notched his 300th. … Vegas’ James Neal is now three games shy of his 700th. … Marchessault became the 10th player in NHL history to record 70 points while playing for a team in its inaugural season. … The 18,326 in attendance was the third-largest crowd of the season.UP NEXTColorado: Returns home to host Philadelphia on Wednesday night.Vegas: Hosts Arizona on Wednesday night.— NEW YORK — The Florida Panthers are looking forward to playing Wednesday night because it will provide them an opportunity to forget about what happened Tuesday.The New York Islanders are looking forward to Wednesday night so they can confirm they haven’t forgotten how to play hockey.The Panthers will complete a back-to-back set Wednesday night, when they visit the Islanders in New York’s first home game in more than two weeks at Barclays Center.Article continues below ...Both teams are coming off lopsided losses. The Panthers suffered their first multi-goal defeat of the season Tuesday, when they fell to the host New York Rangers, 5-2. The Islanders last played Saturday night, when they completed a 1-3-0 road trip by dropping a 4-1 decision to the San Jose Sharks.The defeat Tuesday continued a frustrating trend for the Panthers (1-3-3), who scored first for the sixth time in seven games. Florida has led in all of its losses.“We came out and played pretty well and got the first goal,” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said afterward. “Usually, that’s enough to spark the team and inspire all of us to play at a higher level. For some reason, we have a tough time holding on to leads. Once we get that lead Womens Tuukka Rask Jersey , we aren’t playing aggressive enough.”The Islanders (3-4-0) feel as if they aren’t playing enough, period. While they are one of six teams to have played seven or fewer games, no one else has experienced as sporadic a schedule as New York, which has already had two three-day breaks and one four-day break.In addition, Wednesday marks the third home game for the Islanders, who are splitting this season between Barclays Center in Brooklyn and their old home, Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Only the Arizona Coyotes have played as few as two home games.“Every team we’ve played against is what you (would) consider a playoff team,” Islanders defenseman Thomas Hickey told Newsday following practice Tuesday. New York’s last six games have been against teams that qualified for the postseason last year.“That’s the good part of it. The bad part is when you have four days between a game, you might lose your game legs a little bit. You’re almost easing your way into the game, just defending and playing smart, whereas it’s not really instinctual like when you’re playing three games in four nights or playing every other night for a month, which is what everyone would prefer.”James Reimer, who replaced Michael Hutchinson in net early in the third period Tuesday, is likely to draw the start in goal for the Panthers on Wednesday night.Reimer Zdeno Chara Jersey , who stopped both shots he faced against the Rangers, last started Friday, when he was pulled for Hutchinson in the second period after giving up four goals on 20 shots in what turned out to be a 6-5 shootout win over the Washington Capitals.The Islanders are expected to counter with Thomas Greiss, who has split time this season with Robin Lehner.Greiss, who sat in favor of Lehner the previous two games, last played Thursday, when he recorded five saves in relief of Lehner in New York’s 7-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. Greiss made his most recent start Oct. 17, when he took the defeat after making 21 saves in a 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.Reimer is 5-2-2 in 12 games against the Islanders. Greiss is 2-2-1 in five regular-season appearances against the Panthers, though he was the only goalie used by the Islanders in their six-game win over Florida in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals in 2016.