Brett Howden scored in the Vegas Golden Knights' 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final on Wednesday, pushing his remarkable road run to six straight games with a goal.
Howden, 28, now has seven goals on that six-game road goal streak and nine goals in 13 Stanley Cup Playoff games. He blocked a shot late on a penalty kill in Game 1 and finished the resulting 2-on-1 rush for a 3-0 lead at 1:34 of the first period — a sequence that underlined how he has had to earn his scoring chances as much as he has finished them.
The weight of the moment is immediate: if Howden scores in Game 2 at Ball Arena on Friday, he will tie Brian Propp’s 1989 mark of eight goals on a seven-game road goal streak for the longest road goal streak in NHL postseason history. Propp set that mark with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1989; Howden has a shot at matching it less than a week after the Golden Knights advanced to the conference final.
Howden’s run is not just an odd hot streak. He has three shorthanded goals in this postseason — tied for the NHL record for a single postseason with seven other players, including Wayne Gretzky — and three game-winning goals in the playoffs, which leads the tournament and ties the Vegas single-postseason mark. Those numbers, along with a 3-goal, 1-assist series against the Anaheim Ducks, show a player being asked to do more than one job and delivering.
That versatility is exactly why coach John Tortorella has leaned on him. "He's a very versatile player for us and is doing a lot of the little things right," Tortorella said, pointing to Howden’s usage on the penalty kill and in defensive situations. Vegas has deployed Howden with Mitch Marner and William Karlsson because the trio can be trusted in both ends of the ice; Karlsson, who missed 68 games in the regular season and all of the first round against Utah, was slid onto a line with Howden and Marner during the Anaheim series and the chemistry paid off. Marner posted nine of his 11 points in that series during Games 3 through 6.
Still, the streak carries a tension every hot run does: how much of it is finish and how much is fortune? Howden acknowledged the element of luck without diminishing the work behind it. "Sometimes you get the bounces," he said. "Like, for example, the goal I had last night, that was just kind of a crazy bounce. I think sometimes they go, sometimes they don't. I try not to let that waver, try to not let that dictate how I play or let that affect my game. I try to bring the same game every night." He returned to that theme later: "I feel like I have the same routine. But if something doesn't go the right or the same way at the exact same time, it's not going to throw me off."
The contrast with his regular season is stark. Howden scored 12 goals in 58 regular-season games for Vegas, and the playoffs have been where he has emerged as one of the team’s most productive scorers while also contributing on the penalty kill and in key defensive minutes.
What happens next is simple, and consequential: Game 2 at Ball Arena on Friday will tell whether Howden’s stretch is historic or merely hot. If he scores, the name Brian Propp will be joined by Howden’s on a small list of postseason feats that are as much about traveling and finishing as they are about scoring at home. If he doesn’t, the streak still underlines the larger point — Howden has become a multi-purpose playoff scorer who can change a series simply by being deployed in the right moments.
And off the ice, the run has a small, human echo. Howden said his 3-year-old son Charlie has been practicing goal celebrations at home. "He doesn't really know what's going on, but I was talking to him this morning. He was trying to practice his celebrations right now at home. It's pretty cool seeing just how much he's starting to enjoy it and really love it," Howden said — a reminder that for a player 28 years old, there is a life beyond streaks that will still be there after Friday's result is known.
