Fans ecstatic as Knights put on scoring show against Sharks

The yearlong party on the Las Vegas Strip continued Thursday as Golden Knights fans showed up in droves to cheer on their hometown team against the San Jose Sharks.

After the team made short work of the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Knights fans were hoping for another series win over a divisional rival. They wouldn’t leave this game disappointed, as it was all Knights in a 7-0 rout.

Anticipation was high before the game as fans made the trek to T-Mobile Arena.

Sasha Endo, 43, is hoping for another series sweep in round two. She wore a William Karlsson jersey as she walked with Kevin Absher, 48, across the Strip’s pedestrian bridges toward T-Mobile.

The couple were hockey fans before the Knights came to town, but they now believe their Knights can advance by dictating play.

“I hope they crush the Sharks,” Absher said.

They and the rest of the Knights faithful, although one fan found a different way to express his disdain for the team in teal.

Robert Tierney of Las Vegas tied a small, plastic shark to a shoelace earlier in the afternoon to serve as a makeshift whack-a-shark. The tiny shark was a shot container he got at a bar called “Sharky’s” in California, he explained.

“We’ve just been letting people stomp on it, kick it for no reason,” he said.

Tierney compared it to a smaller, series-specific version of a Nashville Predators fan tradition of smashing a car painted to represent the opposing team in a playoff series. Upon seeing the shark on a leash, another fan yelled and kicked the shark, flinging it up. He was one of many who abused the little shark, Tierney said.

Tierney, who grew up in New Jersey, said he thinks the Knights will beat the Sharks in six games in a tight series. He also believes the Knights can continue their storybook season all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

“This is something that you write a movie about,” Tierney said.

Kendria Adams, 46, posed at The Park for a picture with an ice sculpture of the team slogan “Vegas Born.” She came decked out to cheer on the Knights, from her white jersey to her Knights-themed fingernails, each painted glittery purple and silver. Adams decorated two fingers on each hand with the team’s primary and secondary logos, as well as the numbers of several players on the team.

And it only took her eight hours to perfect the Knights nails.

“They’re worth it,” Adams said with a smile.

As the pregame ceremony began for the Knights to take the ice, Kristina Tucky stood in section 226 of T-Mobile, waving her rally towel in circles above her head and swaying with the beat of the pregame music.

Tucky, a schoolteacher and a season ticket holder, said she was thrilled to wear her Knights gear to class and see her students do the same. She said she loves the way the people of Las Vegas have rallied around the team, and she predicted the Knights win the series in five games.

“I’ll give them one,” Tucky said.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.