LAS VEGAS -- Center Tomas Hertl returned to the lineup for the Vegas Golden Knights in Thursday night's 2-1 win over the Seattle Kraken.
Hertl, playing his first game since suffering an upper-body injury March 23 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, didn't have any shots against the Kraken.
"It's nice to be with the guys again and be part of the team," Hertl said after Thursday's morning skate. "It wasn't a long time, thank God. It was taken care of in two weeks, so I feel lucky."
Hertl led Vegas with 31 goals at the time of his injury. Pavel Dorofeyev has since taken the team lead with 33 goals.
The Golden Knights particularly missed Hertl on the power play. He set the club's single-season record with 14 goals with the man advantage before sustaining an upper-body injury, with Dorofeyev just one behind.
Vegas' power play had been the NHL's best, converting on more than 30% of its chances. The Golden Knights have failed to score on their last 10 power plays, covering five games.
"We miss his interior presence there," coach Bruce Cassidy said before Thursday's game. "Offensively, I thought even 5-on-5 he was doing a really good job with [Dorofeyev]. They really had chemistry and [Brandon Saad]. That line can hopefully recapture where they were, and I thought they were playing really well defensively."
Jack Eichel (upper-body injury) and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo sat out for the second straight game. Nicolas Hague returned from a one-game absence because of an illness that Cassidy said has been prevalent on the team.
Vegas would have secured the division with Thursday's win, but the Los Angeles Kings remained alive with a 6-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Vegas has a six-point lead with three games remaining; the Kings have four games left.
A regulation victory by the Golden Knights or regulation loss by the Kings over that span will give Vegas the division and home-ice advantage through at least the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.