That did not turn out like it started.
On Tuesday night, Mark Stone capped a three-goal rally for the Vegas Golden Knights when he popped home to the game-winner with 50 seconds of clean, fresh overtime ice used in a 3-2 win in Game 5, in Denver.
“I had a couple big shot blocks right before that,” Stone said. “Sometimes when the D-man shoots it like that, they get flat-footed. Just took off, fortunate to end the game.”
His goal came off a break out pass from the slot area to him streaking down the left wing.
The victory gives Vegas a 3-2 series lead over the Colorado Avalanche heading back to The Strip for Game 6 on Thursday night.
“You’ve got the Presidents’ Trophy-winning team on the other side,” Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer said. “You look at the numbers, they’re one of the best teams in the last 10 to 15 years from a regular-season point of view. There’s going to be push and pull, and I thought we did a great job. It wasn’t always perfect, but it was a great win, and our guys really dug in and found a way.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves in the win.
Fleury stopped a brilliant chance from the Avs’ Gabriel Landeskog with just 10 seconds gone in the extra session.
“The game should’ve been over,” Stone said. “We should’ve been going home, but ‘Flower’ made a huge save and kept us in it and gave me that opportunity to end it.”
The Avs took a 1-0 lead when Brandon Saad scored again, this time with two seconds left in the opening frame.
Joonas Donskoi pushed the lead to 2-0 in the 17th minute of the second period.
“We showed tonight that we can play with Vegas and create the chances we need and still defend properly, and we made some mistakes,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said. “Now we’re in the situation we’re in and we got to dig in and try to better that performance and go get the job done.
“It’s a game of mistakes, and I’ll say that I loved the way we played tonight, I loved it. I thought we were the aggressor, we were on our toes, we were playing to win the hockey game, we played to our identity.”
The Avs held the lead until Alex Tuch scored with 63 seconds gone in the third period for cut the Avs’ lead to 2-1.
Tuch’s goal came off a turnover near the Avs’ blueline, inside the zone.
“That was very lucky,” Tuch said. “[Roy] and [Mattias Janmark] made a really good play on the forecheck, I tried to provide some pressure, and they ended up stripping the guy. I saw them get possession, and I tried to break toward the net. [Roy] put it on a platter, and I was able to bat that into the net.”
Jonathan Marchessault tied the game, 2-2 just over three minutes later.
“They were really good, that was their push,” Marchessault said. “We’ve been a team for four years that’s been resilient. We don’t sit back. We knew that we had a chance if we came out hard in the third period, and we did that. Good teams find a way to win a game.”
Colorado now needs a win in Las Vegas to get the series home for a Game7.
Philipp Grubauer made 22 saves in the loss.
“We don’t have much time to do anything but rebound, forget about this one, and move on,” Landeskog said. “We’ve got to go into Vegas and win a hockey game. It’s as simple as that.”
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