Brett Howden scored twice for Vegas, while Matt Boldy had both Wild goals.

The Minnesota Star Tribune

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LAS VEGAS — Everything looked as if it was going according to plan.

After calling a timeout, keeping goaltender Filip Gustavsson on the bench for an extra attacker, then strategizing, the Wild took the ice trailing by a goal and put themselves in position to net one.

Set up Matt Boldy, who had already capitalized twice: Almost.

“We obviously believed we could score,” said newcomer Zeev Buium, who was part of that 6-on-5 crew for the Wild despite this being his first NHL game.

Buium’s attempted pass to Boldy was intercepted by the Golden Knights’ William Karlsson, who was tripped by Boldy to prevent Karlsson from flinging the puck into the Wild’s empty net.

“It was a good read,” Buium said. “I thought I did my best to freeze him and slide over.”

Vegas still drained an empty-netter, with 1 second to go, but that last-ditch effort by the Wild was indicative of their 4-2 loss Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena: They were competitive but not close enough, and that’s why the Wild are behind 1-0 in the best-of-seven series.

“We were right there with them until the end there,” Gustavsson said. “That’s how this series is going to be.”

The Golden Knights played as advertised: They’re slick in transition and off the rush, potent on the power play and the least penalized team in the NHL.

They were whistled for just one infraction, after Ryan Hartman was boarded in the third period. Vegas wasn’t dinged for a Nicolas Hague cross check against Hartman or after Frederick Gaudreau was dumped following a defensive-zone faceoff that preceded the Golden Knights’ power play marker, which Wild coach John Hynes felt was interference.

“You have to play the game that’s there,” Hynes said. “It was a strong 5-on-5 game by both teams. You have to take each game for what it is and understand what’s going on in the game and how it goes through. But at the same time, both teams are pretty disciplined.”

At 5-on-5, the Wild were in lockstep with Vegas.

Tomas Hertl tied up Brock Faber’s stick to stop him from clearing a loose puck and then roofed a shot over Gustavsson 15:22 into the first period, but the Wild responded 2:20 later on Boldy’s second career playoff goal.

Hartman handed off the puck to Kirill Kaprizov, who threaded a cross-zone pass to Boldy for a wrister off the rush that flew by Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill.

“I didn’t even see it until it hit my stick,” Boldy said. “So, if that says anything about how good of a pass it was, it was obviously pretty special.”

The Wild improved in the second but were down 2-1 after Vegas’ vaunted power play connected on an uncontested wind-up by Pavel Dorofeyev at 13:33 after Shea Theodore faked a shot to freeze Gustavsson.

“He has his stick up there like he’s taking a slapper,” Gustavsson said. “There’s four people there in front, and the stick lowers so I think he’s shooting. So, I just drop and no shot came.”

Before the Wild responded, the Golden Knights pulled further away 2:28 into the third when Brett Howden buried a wrister after two swift passes up ice by Vegas.

Gustavsson finished with 23 saves compared to 18 for Hill, and one of his stops was denying Jack Eichel’s backhand during a breakaway.

“He came down, started dangling, so I guess he wasn’t going to shoot,” Gustavsson said. “Just tried to wait him out there, and he went to the backhand and I was right there with him.”

Not long after blanking on their lone power play, the Wild upped the pressure on the Golden Knights when Boldy stuffed in a wrap-around with 8:14 remaining and Kaprizov picked up his second assist.

“He played the style of game that gives him a really good chance to be a dominant player in the series,” Hynes said of Boldy, whose first multi-goal playoff game led to that huddle with 1:22 to play.

The Wild sent out Boldy, Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello, Marco Rossi and Buium, who joined the Wild a week earlier after the 19-year-old left the University of Denver and became the first Wild player to make his NHL debut in the playoffs, which included the traditional solo lap in warmups.

“Yeah, it was just special. I don’t really know what else to say,” said Buium, who flipped a puck to his family along the boards. “It was just pretty amazing. Obviously, it was something I dreamed of my entire life. To see my family there, obviously without them I wouldn’t be here. It was, yeah, it was unreal.”

Mostly paired up with Zach Bogosian, who’s already had the rookie over for dinner, Buium skated 13:27, had three shot attempts, and two of the Wild’s 54 hits that are the second most in a playoff game in franchise history.

“After my first shift, the nerves completely went away,” Buium said. “It was less nerves than I thought there was going to be. I think a little after my first shift, it’s like you’re playing hockey now.”

He might have added another highlight had he completed that pass to Boldy as the Wild vied for the tying goal after Eriksson Ek won his career-high 21st faceoff.

Instead, Howden’s empty-netter lifted the Vegas power play that ranked second in the league during the regular season to a perfect 2-for-2 finish, and the Wild are chasing in a series that started off much like their trek to extend their season — with little room for error.

“It was a hard-fought game by both teams,” Hynes said. “What we expected. Both teams came to play hard and pretty good defensive efforts. Not a lot of special teams in the game.

“We did a lot of good things to build on moving forward here.”

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