Devils land blow to Golden Knights' playoff hopes with win

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Nathan Bastian had a goal and an assist, and the New Jersey Devils beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 on Monday night.

The Golden Knights blew their chance to gain ground on the Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division, and their playoff hopes lessened severely with just five games left to play. Vegas, which has made the postseason in each of its first four seasons since entering the league, is three points back of Los Angeles in the division and four points back of Dallas and Nashville for a wild-card berth.

"We gotta win them all, I think that’s pretty simple, we gotta win ‘em all," Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. "It doesn’t get any more desperate than that. I would think that motivation would be the least of our problems right now."

Vegas closes out the home portion of its schedule by hosting Washington on Wednesday and San Jose on Sunday before finishing its season with three road games.

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Vegas Golden Knights center Chandler Stephenson (20) and New Jersey Devils center Jesper Boqvist (70) vie for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, April 18, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Joe Buglewicz)

In a rare win for the Devils — their 13th in their last 40 games — Andreas Johnsson and Jesper Boqvist also scored, while Andrew Hammond made 42 saves.

Hammond is playing with his third organization this season and made just his eighth NHL appearance of the season.

"It’s special," Hammond said of earning his first win as a Devil. "It’s a lot of fun playing in this building. I think it’s an atmosphere that I if you kind of harness it the right way you can really feed off of. ...