In Las Vegas, the Golden Knights scored three times in the third period to break open a 2-2 tie and send them to a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 2 of their first round series on Thursday night.
Mark Stone hit for a double in the third period outburst for the Knights.
“You can get energized by your line by a point or a goal, so it’s good to get that one out of the way,” said Stone. “I don’t want to miss this. I want to be a part of it. I’ve said since I got traded here, ‘This is the team I want to play for, [the] team I want to win with, go to war with.’ So, to be back there means the world to me.”
Game 3 is in Winnipeg on Saturday.
Laurent Brossoit made 31 saves in the win.
“In the first period, we weren’t on our game at all. Some of our veteran guys pulled us into the fight,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We recognized after the first that we had to clean up some things to be better. We did. We moved some pieces around. You never know how that will impact certain lines, but we realized that it was time to get to our game. You don’t want to dig yourself too deep of a hole. You’ll have some ups and downs. Give the players credit for that. It was time to get to our game.”
Adam Lowry staked the Jets to a 1-0 lead in the first period off a power play strike.
“They were the better team tonight,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “They deserved to win that game, there’s no question. Did we make it too easy on them? Yeah, we did. The most disappointing thing was the execution. Giving up the goals that we gave up. The way we gave them up, that’s disappointing. We’ll fix it and get ready for Saturday.”
Vegas scored twice to take a 2-1 lead in the middle frame.
William Karlsson knotted it at 1-1, at 5:54.
“I want to contribute and score again. It’s always fun and a great feeling,’ Karlsson said. “I tried to get us on the board, give us energy to the players and the crowd.”
Jack Eichel scored midway through the period to give the Knights a 2-1 advantage.
“It felt great,” Eichel said of scoring his first playoff goal. “It was a long time coming. It’s good to contribute. It’s a good win by our group. We stuck with it. We won a third period. We won a game.”
Winnipeg scored with four minutes left in the second on a marker from Kevin Stenlund to send to the game to the third, tied 2-2.
In the third, Chandler Stephenson scored at 5:37 to snap the 2-2 tie.
“You can see that [Stephenson] and Mark Stone have great chemistry together,” Cassidy said. “When Mark’s in the lineup, they bring out the best in each other. … Together, they’re like ‘Karly’ and [Reilly Smith] to me. They just fit. They know where each other are on the ice.”
Stone then scored his double for the 5-2 final.
“It’s great to see him have a great game,” Karlsson said. “He was huge from us tonight. That’s what we need.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 34 saves f
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