{"id":345947,"date":"2026-06-04T04:07:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345947\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T04:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:07:26","slug":"tomas-hertl-is-the-hero-for-the-golden-knights-just-in-time-in-the-stanley-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345947\/","title":{"rendered":"Tomas Hertl is the hero for the Golden Knights just in time in the Stanley Cup Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

RALEIGH, N.C. \u2014 Tomas Hertl<\/a> joined the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> in a trade in March 2024 when they were defending champions, fortifying a group that had just won the Stanley Cup and expected to contend perennially with an elite forward in his prime.<\/p>\n

He had just one point in the playoffs that spring, a first-round exit, then just five last year in a second-round loss. It was \u201chere we go again\u201d when Hertl languished in the final 20 games of the regular season without a goal, a stretch that reached 29 before he ended it against Anaheim<\/a> on May 10.<\/p>\n

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That two-month drought now feels like ancient history, especially after Hertl was the hero in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, scoring the go-ahead goal with under four minutes left to beat Carolina and take the lead in the series. It\u2019s his second winning goal in three games, and the scoring touch is back at just the right time for the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t coached him for long, and a lot of those games weren\u2019t that good,\u201d coach John Tortorella said. \u201cI think he\u2019s grown. He never stopped working. I thought there were some major struggles in his game, but he never stopped working at his game. It\u2019s just great timing, just to try to balance our lineup. He has given us some very important minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hertl will be counted on for more of those big minutes in Game 2 at the Hurricanes and beyond in the final. As one of the Vegas players who has not hoisted the Cup, he certainly was feeling the pressure when the puck wasn\u2019t going in the net earlier this postseason and his ice time got reduced as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s not easy because everybody\u2019s looking at me,\u201d Hertl said. \u201cI watched YouTube videos of how I score, talk with family and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A call from former San Jose teammate Joe Pavelski<\/a>, who has scored 74 goals in 291 NHL playoff games, set him straight. They talked for a half-hour on May 9, Hertl scored the next night and then had a goal streak with two in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still texting me, which I really appreciate it and obviously all the teammates always around me,\u201d Hertl said.<\/p>\n

Hertl\u2019s goal in the Cup final opener was the fourth of the night scored by a player who hasn\u2019t won the Cup. Carolina\u2019s Nikolaj Ehlers<\/a> scored the first two, and teammate Shayne Gostisbehere<\/a> tied it in the third period with what would have sent the game to overtime if not for Hertl finishing a beautiful backhanded feed from Colton Sissons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just tried to get open, and I don\u2019t even say a word and he just make an incredible play,\u201d Hertl said. \u201dI won\u2019t say it was an easy shot, but I don\u2019t think the goalie have time to move, so it was kind of open.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The almost pained look of relief on Hertl\u2019s face from the second round this time was pure, unfiltered joy for the 32-year-old from Czechia.<\/p>\n

Hertl\u2019s happiness was only matched and perhaps eclipsed by those of his teammates, who watched him go through the worst slump of his professional career. Now in his second final after losing with the Sharks in 2016, the way Hertl is playing makes Vegas look every bit like the winner it expects to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone goes through tough stretches,\u201d original Golden Knights player Shea Theodore<\/a> said. \u201cHis just kind of came at that bad time. He\u2019s scored some really big goals for us here, and it\u2019s great having him feel a little bit more and get that confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. \u2014 Tomas Hertl joined the Vegas Golden Knights in a trade in March 2024 when they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[163,77482,51330,48134,88,90,89,6174,39563,4634,4403,8614],"class_list":["post-345947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-anaheim","tag-colton-sissons","tag-joe-pavelski","tag-nikolaj-ehlers","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-shayne-gostisbehere","tag-shea-theodore","tag-stanley-cup","tag-tomas-hertl","tag-vegas-golden-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}