Vegas Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer gushed about Max Pacioretty's impact when asked about his star forward, who scored the game-winner in Game 7 to help eliminate the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

"Just writing his name on the board for the lineup, I think, gave the group a lift," DeBoer said after his team's 6-2 win, according to The Athletic's Jesse Granger. "It changed everything, about our confidence ... to score."

Pacioretty gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead with this goal midway through the second period.

The 32-year-old, who played 16:28, didn't appear to be fully healed during the game.

However, he claimed to be fine afterward.

"I turned the corner a couple days ago," Pacioretty said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal's David Schoen. "A lot of people behind the scenes were helping me around the clock. ... That was a big reason why I was able to play (Friday night)."

The veteran winger suited up for the first-round matchup's decisive contest after missing the first six games of the series and the final six of the regular season with an undisclosed injury.

Pacioretty led the Golden Knights with 24 goals prior to the playoffs in 2021, despite being limited to 48 contests.

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Mattias Janmark capped off a hat trick with an empty-netter as the Vegas Golden Knights prevailed 6-2 over the Minnesota Wild in Game 7 of their first-round series Friday night.

The Golden Knights will face the Colorado Avalanche in the second round. The Avalanche swept the St. Louis Blues in the opening stage.

Shea Theodore, Chandler Stephenson, and Nicolas Roy each collected a pair of assists in the Vegas victory.

Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 19 of the 21 shots he faced for the Golden Knights. Wild goaltender Cam Talbot allowed five goals on 34 shots.

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Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin played just 1:56 in the first period of Friday's Game 7 against the Vegas Golden Knights before departing with an apparent injury.

Brodin was slow getting up after Nicolas Roy hit him hard into the boards early in the contest.

The 27-year-old had a career year offensively with 23 points in 53 games, but he's regarded as one of the best defensive defensemen in the league.

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Vegas Golden Knights sniper Max Pacioretty is in the lineup for Game 7 against the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

Pacioretty hasn't played since May 1 due to an undisclosed injury.

He returns to his familiar spot on the top line with Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone.

Pacioretty led the Golden Knights with 24 goals in 48 regular-season games.

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If there's one thing these playoffs have taught us, it's that hockey is alive and well in the south. The Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning were involved in two of the most entertaining first-round series and now go head to head for the Central Division crown in a matchup hardly lacking in star power.

Tampa is playing its best hockey when it matters most, but Carolina seems poised to make the jump to legitimate Cup contender. Do the Lightning need to #TakeWarning, or is it merely an empty threat from a Hurricanes team that floundered when the going got tough in each of the last two postseasons?

1. Hurricanes (+110) versus 3. Lightning (-130)

Overall

*Five-on-five

Head-to-head

*All strengths

It's hard to gauge just how much stock to put into the Lightning's regular-season stats or their eight head-to-head meetings with the Hurricanes, because Nikita Kucherov didn't play at all. On the other side, Teuvo Teravainen also missed all eight for Carolina, which at least slightly mitigates Kucherov's absence.

Carolina should be worried about how good Kucherov looked in the first round - he recorded three goals and eight assists for a league-leading 11 points. He made massive contributions on the power play right away in Game 1, though there was also an element of rust as he posted an expected goals percentage of just 44 through the first three contests. He got his legs under him for the second half of the series, pushing that number to 73% in the final three games. A fresh and in-form Kucherov spells danger for the Hurricanes.

His offensive exploits were obviously a driving force behind Tampa's success in Round 1, with seven of his 11 points coming on the power play. The Lightning relied heavily on the man advantage against the Florida Panthers, scoring an absurd eight goals on 20 opportunities (40%). However, it's unlikely they replicate that sort of success against the Hurricanes.

The penalty kill was the Achilles' heel for the Panthers this season, and it was a definite strength for the Hurricanes. Carolina finished third during the regular season with a terrific 85.2% success rate and upped that number to 88.5% in Round 1, killing 23 of the 26 Nashville Predators power plays. Special teams is an overall strong suit of this Hurricanes team, which also ranked second on the power play during the regular season and could be a real difference-maker in this series against a Tampa penalty kill that was significantly underwhelming - 72.7% - in the first round.

Also aiding the Lightning's red-hot power play was Florida's miserable goaltending situation. Sergei Bobrovsky remained a problem and Chris Driedger turned into a pumpkin. Here's how the pair ranked in GSAA and GSAx among the 20 goalies to suit up in the first round:

Goaltending is a strength for the Hurricanes, who match up incredibly well with the Lightning thanks to Alex Nedeljkovic and Petr Mrazek. It's Nedeljkovic's crease to lose, and he got the better of Andrei Vasilevskiy in the regular season. In three starts against Tampa, he saved 4.82 goals above expected, stopping 75 of 78 shots.

It wasn't just against the Lightning that Nedeljkovic excelled, either, as he ranked fifth in GSAA and third in GSAx this season. Vasilevskiy ranked third and fourth, respectively, but also played nearly double the number of games. When you average it out, Nedeljkovic posted considerably better marks in both GSAA/60 and GSAx/60. Goaltending is a key in the playoffs, and Tampa's perceived edge in this series might not actually be an edge at all.

Nedeljkovic was solid in Round 1, but this is a step up in class against a Lightning team with elite scoring and high-end talent. Tampa doesn't necessarily generate a ton of chances but scores a lot given its quality up front. The same can be said of the Hurricanes, though, who feature elite offensive talent backed by quality depth.

Carolina is the better of the two teams at driving play. The Hurricanes were among the league leaders in xGF%, CF%, and HDCF% in the regular season, and they didn't miss a beat in the first round, managing 55.01% of the expected goal share. Tampa's numbers paled in comparison, as it posted a 45.4% mark in six games against the Panthers, but the quality of opponent certainly has to be taken into consideration.

The Hurricanes need to improve when it comes to chance conversion. They ranked 28th in five-on-five shooting percentage this season at 7.21, and that number actually dropped to 6.74 in the first round. Juuse Saros was a big part of that, but Vasilevskiy can be just as stingy.

With everyone in the lineup and a series under their belt, the Lightning have to be considered the slight favorites here, but not to the extent the line suggests. Home ice is massive for the Hurricanes, who were 20-3-5 at PNC Arena in the regular season - including 3-1 against Tampa - and a perfect 3-0 in Round 1. Even shy of full capacity, the building was deafening against the Predators, and being able to control the matchups against the Lightning's elite playmakers is massive for Rod Brind'Amour.

This series will showcase some of the best the league has to offer, and though the defending champions look the part once again, there's a clear path to success for Carolina in this series. If the Hurricanes can take fewer penalties, remain efficient on special teams, and not lose the goaltending matchup, they will reach the Stanley Cup semifinals for the second time in three years.

Pick: Hurricanes (+110)

Alex Moretto is theScore's supervising editor of sports betting. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.

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A pair of defensive juggernauts are set to clash in an East Division final that - on the surface at least - shapes up to be a tense affair.

But the Bruins have been scorching hot since a flurry of deadline acquisitions, easily disposing of a strong Capitals team in Round 1. The Islanders, meanwhile, have been trending in the wrong direction and were gifted a first-round victory thanks to Tristan Jarry's incompetence.

Will upsetting the Penguins be the spark New York needs to get back on track? Or will the Bruins prove too much to handle, as they have for nearly all of their opponents over the past six weeks?

3. Bruins (-240) vs. 4. Islanders (+200)

Overall

*five-on-five

Head-to-head

*all strengths

Despite being the league's hottest team over the final month of the regular season, the Bruins (+1000) entered the playoffs with just the sixth-best odds to win the Stanley Cup. After a first-round demolition of Washington, those odds have been slashed by more than half, and only the Avalanche (+240) are now priced shorter than Boston (+450) to win it all.

Up next for Boston is an Islanders team that will be aiming to replicate its regular-season success against the Bruins in hopes of making a second successive trip to the Stanley Cup semifinals. New York's 5-2-1 head-to-head edge during the regular season is a bit misleading, though.

The Bruins improved drastically over the final month of the campaign after a trio of deadline acquisitions. They led the NHL with a 63.09 expected goals for percentage at five-on-five with Taylor Hall in the lineup, going 11-3-1 in those games. They faced the Islanders three times over that span, winning all three contests while owning a 69.49% share of the expected goals. And New York was hardly dominant in winning the first five meetings. The underlying metrics were relatively even in those games, with goaltending proving key to the Islanders' success.

To win this series, goaltending will once again be pivotal for New York, as it was in Round 1. The Penguins were largely the better team in their series against the Islanders, who owned just a 46.33 expected goals for percentage at five-on-five but capitalized on an absolute horror show from Jarry. The netminder was directly to blame for three of Pittsburgh's losses and was miserable throughout, posting minus-6.44 goals saved above average and minus-6.72 goals saved above expected. Both marks were by far the worst among goaltenders this postseason. New York's Ilya Sorokin was third with 3.07 goals saved above average.

The Islanders will need something similar to unfold to have a chance against Boston. The Bruins are better than the Penguins at both five-on-five and on special teams, and they just manhandled a very good Capitals team while owning 59.27% of the series' expected goal share at five-on-five. Boston limited Washington's high-powered offense to just 1.76 expected goals for per 60 minutes, and it generated 48 high-danger chances across five games compared to the Capitals' 30.

The Bruins' power play and penalty kill both consistently rank among the league's best, and this season was no exception. Boston was especially efficient on the penalty kill, setting up what should have been an epic first-round battle against a lethal Capitals power play. But it wasn't a close contest, as the Bruins held Washington's third-ranked power-play unit to just three goals on 21 opportunities. Boston will now look to shut down an Islanders power play that ranked 21st in the regular season and went 3-for-18 against the Penguins' 26th-ranked penalty kill in Round 1.

New York will have to withstand a lot of pressure in this series, staying patient - a defining trait of Barry Trotz's teams - and disciplined against a Boston squad likely to control possession. The Bruins should have no issue generating offense at five-on-five and can be trusted to win the battle on special teams, as well. It's hard to see New York charting a path to Round 3 without Sorokin significantly outplaying Tuukka Rask, who isn't quite the goalie he once was. Boston's quality should ultimately prove too much for an Islanders team that simply hasn't played good hockey over the past two months.

Pick: Bruins (-240)

Alex Moretto is theScore's supervising editor of sports betting. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.

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