In Edmonton, the hopes for a deeper run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs were dashed on the rocks of a natural hat trick by the Vegas Golden Knights’ Jonathan Marchessault in the middle frame of Game 6 on Sunday night.
Marchessault hit for his hat trick to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead headed to the third period.
“We’re definitely going to enjoy it tonight, but we’re just halfway done,” Marchessault said. “Every night everybody out here is just trying to play the right way and sometimes we get rewarded. One night, it’s one guy. One night, it’s another one. And that’s the mentality we have this year, just next man in and keep it going.”
William Karlsson hit for empty-net goal with 39 seconds left on the Oilers’ season clock for the 5-2 final score.
Adin Hill made 39 saves for the win.
“He was awesome. I can’t give ‘Hilly’ enough credit, obviously,” Golden Knights center Jack Eichel said. “‘L.B.’ goes down early in the series, and he steps in ready to rock and he played fantastic for us.
“You need your goalie to be good, and I can’t say enough good things about him.”
Vegas now awaits the winner of the Dallas Stars-Seattle Kraken series in the Western Conference.
“It hurts,” said Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, who did not have a point and was minus-4. “It’s tough to find words right now. Obviously, when you start a season, we’re in it to win it and we’re at that stage. If you don’t complete that, then it feels like a failure or a wasted year almost. It hurts.
“We couldn’t create enough 5-on-5, but we scored two 5-on-5 tonight and sometimes that’s got to be enough. I have to take a lot of ownership myself, I wasn’t good tonight. It’s always tough. Guys play me hard, I know that, but I have to find a way to be better.”
Reilly Smith staked the Knights to a 1-0 lead with 24 seconds of fresh ice in the first period used.
Connor McDavid scored 31 seconds later to tie the game, 1-1.
“They did a lot of good things, they shut it down, their third period was clinical,” said McDavid. “We still had our looks and didn’t find a way to get one past them.”
Edmonton then grabbed a 2-1 lead at 2:43 of the first off a marker from Warren Foegele.
Marchessault scored at 4:26 of the second period off a rebound on the right to tie the game.
Another rebound at 7:44 with no Oilers defense in the neighborhood went to Marchessault who backhanded it in from the crease for a 3-2 advantage.
His hat trick goal came with less than two minutes left on the clock in the period.
The goal was not off a rebound, rather a wrist shot from the left circle form a 4-2 lead headed to the third.
“They did a lot of good things. They shut it down, their third period was clinical,” McDavid said. “We still had our looks and didn’t find a way to get one past them. I thought in Game 5 they had a better second period than us, Game 6 they had a better second period, and we couldn’t claw our way back.”
The Oilers outshot Vegas, 12-5, in the third period, but none were particularly challenging.
“Obviously our group is very disappointed for coming up short of our goal, which was to push this series to seven games,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “The effort was there from our players, they pushed until the very end and they tried to find the equalizers. In the end, it didn’t turn our way, but I can’t fault the effort from our players, but there were some points in our game where we felt we could have been better.”
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Stuart Skinner got the start for the Oilers, he made 13 saves, yielding four goals through two periods.
“We just weren’t consistent enough,” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “If you give them chances, they’re going to make you pay. We played with fire a little bit, getting behind in the series, and then they found a way to finish their chances tonight and we couldn’t.”
Skinner was given the hook in the second intermission.
Jack Campbell made four saves in the third period.
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