In Winnipeg, Laurent Brossoit made 24 saves, and the Vegas Golden Knights scored a 4-2 win over the Jets in Game 4 on Monday night.
The win gives the Golden Knights a 3-1 series lead.
“Feels great, especially a big swing game like the fourth game usually is, and just the fashion that we did it in,” Brossoit said. “Everyone was playing well tonight. All four lines were going, all ‘D’ pairings were going. We didn’t really give them anything. They’re dealing with some injuries, but we’ve got a veteran group that didn’t get complacent, and we took it to them”
Blake Wheeler scored in the first period to give the Jets an early 1-0 lead.
“He’ll be reevaluated tomorrow,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said.
“Our team played very hard tonight. We adjusted, and we’ve been through this before early in the year when we had five or six guys out, key guys out. And now we’re faced with it again. And the difference now, obviously, is you’re in the playoffs and you’re playing an excellent hockey club every night. And they are a good hockey club. So are we. We’ll find a way. We fought through this before. Are we missing some keys guys? Yes. We’ll find a way to win that game on Thursday.”
The Jets lost Mark Scheifele to an upper-body injury in the first period.
“It’s unfortunate, obviously, to lose [Scheifele], a guy we really rely on,” Wheeler said. “The guys battled extremely hard. We just couldn’t get a bounce 5-on-5. … We just couldn’t get the extra one when we needed it.”
Vegas’ Brett Howden tied the game, 1-1, in the first with the first of his double on the night.
“That’s pretty special, first-ever playoff goal,” Howden said. “Pretty nice of the guys. They saved the puck for me. … Pretty cool.”
William Karlsson and Ivan Barbashev scored 47 seconds apart in the middle frame for a 3-1 lead to the Knights.
“At the end of the day, no panic, just take care of business,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Play the right way and end up getting the win, that’s what we came here for. I think we’re the better team, but usually when you watch the game you can get a better feel for it, but I never felt we were in trouble tonight.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored with three minutes gone in the third period to trim the deficit to 3-2 for the Jets.
Howden added an empty-net goal with 17 seconds left on the game clock for the 4-2 final.
Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves in the loss.
“There’s no quit in the guys. There’s lots of fight left,” Bowness said. “You saw the effort, and they’re giving everything they can down there. … Five-on-5, the play is even. They’re not out-chancing us, we’re not out-chancing them.”
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