Knights faithful rewarded with Game 5 victory at home

Several thousand Golden Knights fans held their breath Friday night at T-Mobile Arena as the San Jose Sharks cut the lead down to one goal.

But when forward Jonathan Marchessault’s shot from his own end hit the back of the empty San Jose net, they erupted, knowing their team was one win away from advancing to the Western Conference final.

With the Knights’ Game 5 win, Vegas can close out the series with a win on Sunday in San Jose. If they lose, they’ll play a winner-take-all Game 7 at home on Tuesday.

Season ticket holders are confident about the Knights future.

The team has already sold out its season tickets for next year. In fact, they’ve been sold out for more than a month.

Friday night’s crowd buzzed from start to finish as the Knights put the Sharks on the brink of elimination with a 5-3 victory at home. They jumped out of their seats and screamed after the Knights scored an empty net goal in the final period. They never sat back down.

‘Nothing like a Golden Knights game’

As the Golden Knights gave up three goals to trim their 4-0 lead down to one goal, Pam Ginsburg, 57, admitted she was pretty nervous from her vantage point in the last row of the arena’s upper bowl.

“I wanted to close my eyes,” she said.

But when the final horn blew, her husband, Gary, 62, threw his hands in the air, forming a V-shape like the one in his favorite team’s logo.

The Las Vegas couple had been waiting for a major professional sports team for a long time. And the team has delivered more than they could have imagined.

“There’s nothing like a Golden Knights game,” Gary Ginsburg said.

Wearing a Brayden McNabb jersey, 75-year-old David Lovett was impressed with the Golden Knights’ play Friday night as Vegas took a 3-0 lead into the third period.

“If they play the way they’re playing tonight, they’re not coming back here,” he said.

But as the Sharks halved the Golden Knights lead with two quick goals midway through the third, 36-year-old Phillip Dwyer grew somewhat less confident the Knights could pull off the series win from their section 210 seats. His 68-year-old father, David, remained steadfast.

“We’re gonna beat ‘em in San Jose,” David Dwyer said.

“Think so?” Phillip asked. “I don’t know. I’m like 50 percent. I think he’s more certain than me.

“I was probably 70 percent two minutes ago,” he laughed.

The two season ticket holders decided to renew in November, about a month before David Dwyer finally decided to get cable after 30 years without so he could watch Knights games on the road.

While the Dwyers were home game regulars, Brian Lewis, 49, and Sarah Post, 34, hadn’t attended T-Mobile Arena since the preseason game on Oct. 1, also against the Sharks. The experience between then and the pivotal playoff game was night-and-day, citing the big crowd and raucous atmosphere, they said.

“They’ve got this city to rally around them,” Post said. “I’m sure more than half these people didn’t follow hockey before they were here.”

Post and Lewis each think Vegas pulls out a 3-2 win over the Sharks to close out the series and advance, but the couple differs on when: Post thinks they win game 6 in San Jose and Lewis thinks they’ll win at home in a game seven.

But anxiety creeped in as the game came down to the last couple of minutes, they said.

“It got a little dicey there in the third,” Lewis said. “Dicey, but came through.”

Keeping the faith

While Friday’s game could’ve have been the last played at home this season, season ticket holder Greg Byers never thought that was going to be the case.

“It won’t be,” he said moments before the puck dropped.

He and his wife, Sara, have had season tickets since before the team even had a roster. They threw a little party when they picked out their seats.

On Friday, she held a sign that said, “1 if by land, 2 if by sea, come on Knights, we need win #3!”

Like the Golden Knights, Greg Byers was “Vegas Born” and raised, and he said he’d never had a hometown professional sports team to cheer. Growing up in the desert, he said it was amazing to cheer for an ice hockey team.

Las Vegas sports fans can be “finicky” if their teams aren’t winning, he said, adding that it was fortunate that the Knights were winning.

But the Byerses sure aren’t giving up on their team, regardless of what happens.

“No, absolutely not,” Sara Byers said.

They’ve already renewed their tickets for next year.

A member of the original 50 season ticket holders, Joe Kaminkow also has renewed his tickets for next year, adding he paid the same as he did last year.

Kaminkow said he’s never seen a culture develop around a sports team like it has with the Golden Knights. He pointed to a little girl wearing a Knights jersey nearby, saying the Knights have entranced entire families and people of all ages.

Like many others, Kaminkow cited the Oct. 1 mass shooting as a rallying point for the Golden Knights; the team rallied around the city, and its fans rallied around the team.

“It became this incredible symbiotic moment,” he said.

Fans’ quick embrace of the team bodes well for fan support of the Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, as well as the WNBA Las Vegas Aces, he said.

Kaminkow said he thinks the Golden Knights will pull out the series and continue what he called their Cinderella story.

“It’s not quite midnight yet,” he said.

Sitting in the upper bowl, Sheran and Nick Castro were fans of the Anaheim Ducks for 23 years. They haven’t totally relinquished their Anaheim fandom yet, but Sheran Castro said the Knights are their first team.

They’ve also renewed their tickets for next year,said Sheran Castro, 71, who sported a light-up golden hat speckled with sequins.

It’s been fun to watch players from several other teams come together to form a new, cohesive team, she said.

Even if the Knights season ends without hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup, the expansion team has had a season worth celebrating.

“And if this is all the further they go, then they’ve done a magnificent thing,” she said.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter. Review-Journal reporter Eli Segall contributed to this report.