Two first period goals by the Montreal Canadiens had the Vegas Golden Knights on their heels most of the night on The Strip.
So much so, that the Canadiens skated off with a 3-2 win in Game 2 to even the series, 1-1.
Carey Price made 29 saves to get the win.
Game 3 is in Montreal on Friday.
Joel Armia and Tyler Toffoli scored in the opening frame for the Habs.
“You get that bounce early, you play with the lead, you’re not chasing the game,” Montreal’s Corey Perry said. “It falls into place from there. I thought the guys played well, kept that momentum, and rode it.”
Alex Pietrangelo scored both Vegas goals, one in the middle frame and the second in the third period.
Ninety-eight hits were recorded in the game, with Montreal delivering 53.
“We’ve been burnt before. We got burnt again tonight,” Vegas’ Mark Stone said. “You can’t go down 2-0 and expect to win the game. The last two periods I thought we played pretty well, but chasing the game is not an easy task against anybody, but these guys play a good team game when they get the lead.”
Pietrangelo scored after the Habs had taken a 3-0 lead at 17:45 of the second period.
“A little disappointed obviously with our first 10 minutes,” Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think we should have been better. We had no excuse tonight. Unfortunately, you get to the final four, you spot a team two goals, you’re playing with fire.”
Paul Byron scored the third goal for Montreal.
Vegas was 0-for-2 on the power play; Montreal did not skate a power on the night.
“We had lots of chances to score. The power play needs to score (0-for-2),” Stone said. “We had opportunities to claw our way back in the game, but you go down two after the first and then you get down 3-0, it’s a tough hill to climb.”
Pietrangelo picked up his first 61 seconds later to give the Knights a little hope as the period came to a close.
“We showed some good composure, but I think we can still do a better job,” Montreal head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “We wanted to support the puck better. I think we did that, and it paid off.”
Vegas cut it to 3-2 at 14:46 of the third but Price held the one-goal margin for the win.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves in the loss.
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