WINNIPEG Youth Sebastian Aho Jersey , Manitoba (AP) The Winnipeg Jets were in rhythm and the Vegas Golden Knights looked rusty.Or, maybe the Jets are just that good.Dustin Byfuglien scored about a minute after the puck dropped and Winnipeg built a three-goal lead early in the first period and went on to beat Vegas 4-2 on Saturday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.While the Jets played at home less than 48 hours after advancing past top-seeded Nashville on the road, the Golden Knights were off for nearly a week after eliminating San Jose in the second round.”We didn’t have much of a rest,” Byfuglien said. ”We’re still in game mode.”Patrik Laine and Joel Armia had goals 46 seconds apart to put the Jets up 3-0. Mark Scheifele gave Winnipeg a 4-1 lead midway on a power play through the second period with his 12th goal this postseason.Brayden McNabb scored midway through the first and William Karlsson had a power-play goal late in the second period to pull Vegas within two, but the expansion team couldn’t get closer.”We were chasing the game all night,” Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said.Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves.Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 shots for the Golden Knights, whose Stanley Cup-winning goalie has given up at least three goals for the fifth time in six games.”He’s the best goalie in the playoffs as far as I’m concerned,” Gallant said.Fleury and the Golden Knights will have to be at, or near, their best when the Jets host Game 2 on Monday night before the series shifts to Las Vegas.”Next game, no excuses,” Golden Knights center Jonathan Marchessault said. ”Everybody needs to come and be ready to play our best game of the playoffs.”We’re going to show what kind of team we are.”Winnipeg, which is making its deepest playoff run in franchise history, started strong and fast. Vegas, meanwhile, didn’t appear anything like the team that took the league by storm in its record-breaking inaugural season.The Jets’ fast Authentic Teuvo Teravainen Jersey , deep and talented team had 114 points this season and trailed only the Predators’ league-high total by three points. Their success has carried over into the postseason, winning all three Game 1s and avoiding trailing a series.The hard-charging, smooth-passing Jets put the Pacific Division champions on their heels right from the start and didn’t relent.”We did take advantage of being game ready,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said.White-clad, towel-twirling raucous fans in the arena – and packed on surrounding streets – were fired up before the game started. And, they were given plenty of opportunities to celebrate in the opening minutes.Byfuglien’s slap shot 1:05 into the game off a drop pass from Scheifele put Winnipeg up 1-0. That ignited the party-like atmosphere in a relatively cozy arena with just 16,345 seats and a low ceiling.”That was huge for us,” Jets center Paul Stastny said. ”Early in the game, too. And then all of the sudden it gave life to everyone, everyone on the bench, the crowd.”Fleury had no shot to stop Laine’s one-timer from the left circle off Wheeler’s cross-ice pass on a power play at the 6:49 mark of the first. Armia had a goal waved off less than a minute later only to have it restored by a challenge, which overturned the goaltender interference call on the ice.”Sometimes getting your legs a little bit under you takes a few minutes here and they took advantage of it,” Fleury said.After the flurry of goals early, the Jets were able to play conservatively to cut down on Vegas’ comeback chances.”We were getting the puck deep,” Scheifele said. ”We weren’t fooling around with it in the neutral zone.”The Golden Knights pulled Fleury to add an extra skater late in the game, but had to put him back on the ice because there was a faceoff near him. They sent him to the bench again and had some chances to pull within one Womens Victor Rask Jersey , but the shot-blocking Jets didn’t let the puck get to Hellebuyck much.NOTES: The last time two teams were in the NHL conference finals for the first time was 2003 when Anaheim swept Minnesota. … Scheifele has four more goals than any player still in the postseason. … Fleury, a former Pittsburgh Penguin, has four shutouts this postseason and has allowed four goals in three games.—Follow Larry Lage at www.twitter.com/larrylage— Former Montreal Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty will play his first game in Montreal on Saturday since being traded to the Vegas Golden Knights on the eve of training camp.Pacioretty, who was the Montreal captain for three seasons beginning in 2015, was traded for forward Tomas Tatar, prospect Nick Suzuki and a second-round draft pick in 2019.Pacioretty is off to a slow start with his new team with two goals in 12 games. He missed four games after taking a shoulder in the nose from Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn and returned Tuesday in a 3-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.Article continues below ...Pacioretty had two shots in 20:13 of ice time in the Golden Knights’ 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday in which the Knights lost a 3-0 lead and rebounded for win.After a trip to the Stanley Cup Final this past spring, the Golden Knights (7-8-1) have been inconsistent. Since winning three games in a row Oct. 13-20, their only consecutive wins this season, they are 3-4-1. They are still without suspended defenseman Nate Schmidt and injured center Paul Statsny.“We were faced with a lot of adversity early on with injuries and a bit of a tough start and with (Nate Schmidt) being out, but the atmosphere never changed. It says a lot about the culture of this team and why they had success last year,” Pacioretty told Sportsnet.He said he isn’t surprised by the Canadiens’ good start.“A lot of guys have really stepped up and bounced back really well,” he said. “That seems to be the case often times in big markets, and then also when there’s less pressure, less expectation. You saw with Vegas last year, with the expectations and how they did. It’s easier to skate down the ice when you don’t have that on your shoulders.”The Golden Knights had one of their best offensive nights of the season against the Senators. The Knights are 29th in the NHL with an average of 2.38 goals scored per game.“The puck finally went in the net for us,” Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant told NHL.com. “So that was really a key for us Alex DeBrincat Jersey , to get five goals (Thursday night). Real happy about that, and I thought, for the most part, we had a real good game.”The Canadiens (8-5-3) lost 6-5 in overtime to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, the fourth game in a row goaltender Carey Price has given up at least four goals in a game. After a 4-1-1 start, the Canadiens are 4-4-2 in their past 10 games and have lost two games in a row for the first time this season. They are hanging onto third place in the Atlantic Division.“Let’s just cut to the chase, I just didn’t play very good (Thursday night),” Price told NHL.com. “It’s all upstairs. I’ve got to figure it out.” Canadiens coach Claude Julien told the league website, “Unfortunately, that position is one that you can really pinpoint because we’ve got players that can play really bad one night, but because they’re surrounded by other players around them it doesn’t show as much. That’s the sad part of a goaltender’s position is that, as you can see, we’re looking more at him when the rest of our team wasn’t any better.”The Canadiens will be without forward Joel Armia for a second game. He will be out six to eight weeks because of a knee injury.