(Photo Credit: @GoldenKnights on X/Twitter)

The Colorado Avalanche may be the faster team, and they may even be the more skilled team. When the puck is in the center of the ice, the Avs have controlled both Games 1 and 2. Yet, the Golden Knights are heading back to Las Vegas with a 2-0 stranglehold on the series.

The reason for it is in large part due to their dominance when the puck is along the walls.

Through the two games at Ball Arena, the Golden Knights came out victorious time and time again when the game moved from open ice to confined spaces. It’s the one clear and obvious place VGK have the advantage, and it’s clear that was a focus heading into the series.

You see it all the time in these games, it’s little things that turn into big things. There’s not always going to be a perfect play, there’s not always going to be a pass that will advance the game up the ice, but there are always going to be little plays where you can get the puck out to the neutral zone and just reset. -Cole Smith

John Tortorella refuses to take credit for it, but it’s one of the most noticeable places of improvement for the Golden Knights since the coaching change. It’s highly unlikely Cassidy wasn’t putting an emphasis on it, but for whatever reason, what wasn’t happening for 74 games in the regular season is now.

No, no, no. It’s not me. It’s not me with that. They know the battles. We do talk about battles. Their team talks about battles. All teams at this time of the year talk about battles. Our guys know what to do. I’m going to tell you that right now. Our room is good no matter what’s going on. We have a good room. That’s what you rest on. At least that’s what I rest on. We trust them, and the biggest thing is they trust themselves. -Tortorella

It manifested itself in the biggest way on the Vegas’ game-winning goal, with a pair of wall battles by one of the most unlikely sources wearing a gold sweater.

The play began with a loose puck near the VGK offensive blue line. Pavel Dorofeyev challenged Martin Necas hard along the wall and pushed the puck into the zone. Then, as a pair of Avalanche players tried to sort out the play, Dorofeyev continued pressing and got his body on the Colorado clearing attempt. The puck bounced out to Eichel, who moved it to Barbashev, who went bar down to give the Golden Knights the lead.

Yeah, I mean I think that the whole shift was just kind of back and forth and Pavel and Jack just kept putting pressure on them and we got a turnover. I mean Pavel’s been really good for us. He’s a huge part of our team and he’s been getting better every single game. -Ivan Barbashev

That play was a microcosm of the first 120 minutes of the series. There’s nothing special about what Dorofeyev did, he was just willing to do it. Every time the puck has been near the walls, Vegas’ players attack.

Obviously there’s a lot of skill and determination involved but at this stage everyone can be really good on the walls but it’s about taking that extra pride in it. -Cole Smith

One team has taken the ultimate pride in it, and it seems to be in the heads of the other. When the going gets tough, the Golden Knights are stepping up.

That’s playoff hockey. -Tortorella

It’s not the only reason, but it’s a massive reason why the league’s best team is desperately searching for answers and why a club that couldn’t find its way all season is suddenly on the doorstep of the Stanley Cup Final.