In Edmonton, in less than six minutes, the Vegas Golden Knights turned a deficit into a two-advantage and a 5-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.
The Game 4 win gives the Knights a 3-1 series lead.
Nate Schmidt, Max Pacioretty (his second of the game) and William Karlsson were the Vegas strikers in the third.
“We knew we’d see their best tonight,” said Pacioretty, who finished with two goals and an assist. “We felt good about our 5-on-5 play but ran into penalty trouble and not only gave them opportunities to score, but lose our rhythm and mojo (Vegas was 3-for-5 on the penalty kill). But we were able to find it again in the third period, and lot of guys stepped up and played a really good game.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves in the win.
I think Shea Theodore (two assists) obviously is turning into a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman; he makes big plays for us offensively,” Vegas’ Mark Stone (three assists) said. “Our defense is transporting the puck for us to control our speed. The defense makes crisp plays and breaks out the puck well, and that leads to our transition.
“That’s why you see our defense being rewarded. They’re pushing the pace just as much as we (forwards) are.”
Elias Pettersson, Bo Horvat and Tyler Toffoli scored for the Canucks who could not hold the one-goal lead in the third period.
“We put ourselves in a [heck] of a spot to win a hockey game, get back into the series,” Vancouver’s JT Miller (three assists) said. “It’s not the third period we wanted. We had some good looks, but that’s a dream spot to be in in the playoffs, to tie the series 2-2 and be up one going into the third. They had too many good looks.”
Chandler Stephenson and also scored for Vegas.
“I knew with [Fleury] in there the guys would play hard for him, and you could tell going into the third that they were going to make a push … they didn’t like the spot they put him in in the second period,” Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer said. “He’s such an important part of our group and the effort our guys gave in a back-to-back situation, third game in four nights, in the third period, showed what they think of him.”
Game 5 of the series is set for Tuesday night.
“There’s no quit in this team,” Pettersson said. “We’ve been working all season for this and we’re not going to back down without a battle. It’s frustrating now, but we just have to focus on the next game.”
[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Canucks Game 4 highlights]
Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves in the loss.
“I’m not looking to learn anything about our group, I know we’ll come ready to go,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “It’s a resilient group, they like to win. They competed hard tonight and sometimes you just don’t win. We’ll be ready to go next game for sure … I’ll tell you that.”
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