in Edmonton, Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat scored for the Chicago Blackhawks in the first period to give them a 2-0 lead over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night.
You might have forgiven the Knights if they were gripping their sticks a little tighter after that start.
But Vegas rallied for a 4-3 win and a 7-1 record in the post season.
Alec Martinez knotted the game at 3-3 with a power play goal.
“We’re a resilient group,” Vegas; Alex Tuch said. “We stuck to our game. I thought we were playing well, and they had a couple lucky bounces and made some nice plays, but we knew our goaltender was going to come out strong and he did so and we wanted to play strong in front of him.”
Tuch potted the game-winner in the third period.
“[Jonathan Marchessault] made a great play, seeing me come off the bench, and it was good change by [Reilly Smith],” Tuch said. “I just tried to jump out there, use my speed, and tried to get a break towards the net. We’ve been talking a lot about driving pucks to the net, and myself especially.
“I just tried to get a shot on net and go for a rebound. I don’t even know where it hit, but it did the job.”
Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone rallied Vegas back for a tie with goals i the first and second period, respectively.
“They’re a heavy team, they’re heavy on the puck, and they make it tough to get the puck off them and turn things the other way,” Toews said. “We didn’t do that enough in the third.”
Robin Lehner made 23 saves to get the win.
“It was nice to win,” Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said. “[Chicago’s] a persistent team. I thought their core players with multiple Stanley Cups, like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brandon Saad, Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford really played well as the series went on. We were glad to get it over with tonight because they weren’t going away quietly and they made us earn it.
“I just like how we respond to adversity whenever it appears; there’s no panic, we stick with it and grind away and find a way to get rewarded.”
Patrick Kane scored in the middle frame to regain the lead for Chicago at 3-2.
“It’s tough to be done; you dream of playing in the playoffs and love to be in these situations, playing in big games,” Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. “Our team played very hard. Ultimately, we came up against an excellent team with a ton of depth. They just kept pushing us, but you can’t fault our work ethic and commitment.”
[WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Golden Knights Game 4 highlights]
Corey Crawford made 35 saves in the loss.
“The last two games, [Vegas] probably outplayed us, but the first three games I don’t think we deserved to be down 3-0 (in the series),” Kane said. “Maybe it would’ve been nice to have a different outcome. We hung in there, we fought, gave it a good chance the last couple of games.”
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