For the second time in three years, the Vegas Golden Knights are back in the second round.

The Golden Knights continued their offensive assault on the Winnipeg Jets with a commanding 4-1 clinching win in Game 5 of their first-round series Thursday at T-Mobile Arena. This will be the fourth time the NHL's 31st team will play in the second round since it entered the league in the 2017-18 season, when it reached the Stanley Cup finals.

"It's not easy. We came out, got a lead early, thought we played with it and took advantage of some opportunities we had," Golden Knights center Jack Eichel said on the team's postgame radio broadcast. "We got contributions everywhere, and it was good to see."

The Golden Knights closed out the series following the same formula they used after losing Game 1: They grounded the Jets on the tarmac.

Chandler Stephenson scored his first of two goals to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. Captain Mark Stone doubled the lead, followed by a goal from William Karlsson before Stephenson grabbed his second to push it to 4-0 to end the second. Goaltender Laurent Brossoit, who started all five games in the series, finished with 30 saves and nearly recorded his first career postseason shutout.

The Golden Knights entering the third period with a four-goal advantage was in stark contrast to how the series started. The Jets opened with a 5-1 win in Game 1. But the Golden Knights responded by winning the next four games in a number of different ways. They overcame a two-goal deficit to win Game 2, staved off the Jets scoring three third-period goals to win Game 3 in overtime and maintained separation from the Jets in Game 4.

It all amounted to the Golden Knights scoring 18 goals over their past four games while allowing only nine goals to the Jets -- a team that entered the playoffs with the third-fewest goals among teams that qualified for the postseason. Winnipeg's scoring concerns were further heightened after All-Star defenseman Josh Morrissey sustained a series-ending lower-body injury early in Game 3. The Jets also were without Nikolaj Ehlers for the first four games of the series, and Mark Scheifele missed Game 5 after suffering an injury in Game 4.

"I've said this a lot -- we're not a team that just trucks teams, you know what I mean?" Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We're good, and when we're on our game in a hurry, we look like we did in the first period where we're right on top of them creating the better chances. ... That's what we do well, is find ways to win. What we don't do well at times is stay on our game, and that's up to me to make sure we find solutions as to why."

As for Winnipeg? Jets coach Rick Bowness, who is in his first season with the club, blasted the team after the game. Asked for his thoughts, Bowness said he was "disgusted and disappointed."

He was asked for the source of his frustrations.

"No pushback. But it's the same crap that we saw in February," Bowness said, referencing when the Jets went from having one of the best records in the West to losing six games and putting their postseason aspirations in jeopardy. "As soon as we were challenging for first place and teams were coming after us, we had no pushback. This series, we had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours, it's not even close."

Bowness, whose postgame availability lasted less than a minute, wasn't finished. He was then asked about the team's leadership core and top-end players.

"We got to push back. There's got to be pride. You got to be able to push back when things aren't going your way," Bowness said. "We had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours tonight. They deserve to win. They were the better team in the regular season. They were the better team in this series."

Now the Golden Knights will await the winner of the Edmonton Oilers-Los Angeles Kings series. The Oilers have a 3-2 series lead and will seek to advance to the second round with a win Saturday.

Last season was the first time the Golden Knights missed the Stanley Cup playoffs, after they came up three points short of the final Western Conference wild-card spot.

Missing the playoffs led to the Golden Knights changing coaches and hiring Cassidy, who previously coached the Boston Bruins, while signing forward Phil Kessel in free agency.

They also added goaltender Adin Hill to have one more option in what became a platoon effort to fill in for Robin Lehner, who missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season to recover from a hip injury.

Under Cassidy, the Golden Knights were one of the most balanced teams in the NHL. They had 12 players who scored more than 10 goals while having 20 players who finished the regular season with more than 10 points.

In net, they largely relied on a tandem of Hill and rookie Logan Thompson, who was named to the NHL All-Star Game. The Golden Knights eventually introduced veteran Jonathan Quick into the group at the trade deadline, while Brossoit returned after recovering from a lower-body injury that saw him play in the AHL before coming back to the NHL.

It led to the Golden Knights consistently grappling for position in the contentious Western Conference playoff race. The Golden Knights came away with the best record in the West.

"It wasn't easy. Winnipeg's a good team over there," Stephenson said on the Sportsnet broadcast. "Last year stung, so, we wanted to make sure we were in the dance this year, and getting guys back at the right time has just been awesome for us. It's nice to be on to the second round."