SALT LAKE CITY — The totality of Friday night at Delta Center was the Vegas Golden Knights zapping the last bit of will out of the Utah Mammoth.

Utah was on the doorstep multiple times with opportunities to put a stranglehold on the series. But the Knights showed their experience and moxie in a 5-1 win in Game 6 to knock out the upstart Mammoth.

If you need one sequence to show the hockey definition of not giving a team life, refer to the Knights’ second goal.

Mitch Marner’s goal with 45 seconds left was a masterclass of relentless forechecking, rolling lines with ease and putting the pressure on the opposition.

WHAT A SNIPE 🫨 pic.twitter.com/3JT783nK0z

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 2, 2026

It came at the right time for the Knights, giving them a 2-0 lead heading into the third period.

It wasn’t the dagger by any means, but it felt like one. Utah’s five skaters were hemmed in their own zone for 2 minutes, 42 seconds.

“The second goal was a really important part of the game for us, just the shift itself,” coach John Tortorella said.

The Knights’ top line of Jack Eichel, Ivan Barbashev and Pavel Dorofeyev stayed out there for nearly two minutes with defensemen Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson, who played 1:50 each.

Eichel, relentless the entire shift keeping pucks alive and continuing the movement, hopped off for the final 10 seconds.

That’s when Marner hopped on, took the puck from Barbashev, moved to the right circle and fired a slapshot that hit the far corner.

“I think it was two lines that went out there and really just put their force down, cycled the puck well, made plays when they were there,” Marner said. “I thought we did a really good job.”

There weren’t many moments throughout the series that had that kind of dominant possession in the offensive zone.

The up-and-down tempo from the Mammoth, combined with the Knights’ ability to create on their own, allowed for more quick-strike action than extended zone time.

That’s the kind of shift you hope to have in a 5-on-4 setting. The Knights cycled it through on even strength with no answer from Utah.

“We had opportunities to get pucks to the net there, but no one was really around it,” Marner said. “The two lines just held onto it and wore them down.”

Utah cut the lead to 2-1 seven minutes into the third with Kailer Yamamoto’s goal giving the Mammoth life.

But Colton Sissons’ goal less than two minutes later was the nail in the coffin on Utah’s season.

“We’ve been here before,” captain Mark Stone said. “We don’t have the panic maybe some teams do. We can calm ourselves pretty quickly.”

The Knights didn’t have that panic when they trailed the series 2-1 after losing Game 3 in Delta Center.

They continued to beat the drum that if they continued to do what they did that night, good things would happen.

That turned into two overtime wins in a 48-hour span, and a five-goal eruption in the clinching game that sets up a date with the Anaheim Ducks in the second round.

“I have a tremendous respect for (Utah coach) Andre (Tourigny) and his staff,” Tortorella said. “That’s a good hockey team. That team won 40-plus game and if you look at their metrics, that’s a team that’s going to be reckoned with for quite a while now as far as the some of the kids and skill and speed they have.”

“We’re fortunate we’re moving on, but I think Andre and his staff have done a fantastic job with that team.”

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.