On Monday night, the Vegas Golden Knights had the answer for the Winnipeg Jets.
Two first period goals from Tomas Tatar and Jonathan Marchessault enabled the Knights to regain their swagger in a 3-1 win in Game 2 to even the series heading back to Las Vegas.
“Definitely satisfied with our effort tonight,” Marchessault said. “Every time when you get a big game of our group, we show up, and tonight we definitely showed up. I think we showed the hockey world that we owned the right to be here and we’re able to play against a great team.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves to help Vegas keep the Jets’ offense at bay.
Kyle Connor struck for Winnipeg to get the Jets within 2-1 but Marchessault scored his second of the night just over a minute later to take the wind out of the Jets’ sails.
“It’s a series,” the Jets’ Jacob Trouba said. “I don’t think anybody is panicking. We’ve been here before. It’s a long series. We’re going to go to Vegas. We like our road game. We like where it was in the Nashville series and we’re going to try and bring the same effort.”
Winnipeg played a strong game but let Vegas control just enough of the match to grab the win.
“There was about 57 minutes of that game that was pretty good for us,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. “Three minutes of it got away from us. They could have scored four goals in three minutes. We just got to stay with it better.”
[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Jets highlights | Complete Jets vs. Golden Knights series coverage]
Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves in taking the loss.
“Sometimes it’s easier being down a goal because the other team sits back and you get to be more aggressive. Sometimes you’re up a goal and it’s easier for other guys because they feel like they’re playing with house money, different players have less to lose just because you’re up a goal,” Winnipeg’s Paul Stastny said after the loss. “So I just think when good teams have a lead they keep their foot on the gas, they want the next goal. It’s the conference final so you’re going to have two of the best teams playing each other and both teams are aggressive, both teams don’t sit back when they have the lead.” —
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