Brett Howden scored two goals and Laurent Brossoit made 24 saves to lead the visiting Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 4 of a Western Conference first-round playoff series on Monday.
William Karlsson and Ivan Barbashev also scored goals for Vegas, which took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Chandler Stephenson and Shea Theodore each added a pair of assists for the Golden Knights, who can wrap up the series with a victory in Game 5 on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Blake Wheeler had a goal and an assist, Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored and Neal Pionk had two assists for Winnipeg, which fell to 7-17 all-time at home in the playoffs. Connor Hellebuyck finished with 26 saves to drop to 2-7 against the Golden Knights in the postseason.
Winnipeg took a 1-0 lead 5:53 into the first period on a power-play goal by Wheeler. He snapped a wrist shot from the right circle inside the far post for his second goal of the series and the 10th playoff goal of his career.
Vegas tied it midway through the period on Howden’s first career playoff goal. Howden had his first shot blocked by Pionk, but he picked up the loose puck by the edge of the left circle and then slapped a shot past Hellebuyck’s glove side.
The Golden Knights took a 3-1 lead in the second period with two goals in the span of 47 seconds.
The first was by Karlsson, his third of the playoffs, when Jonathan Marchessault’s shot caromed in off his skate at 13:32. Barbashev followed with his first goal of the playoffs, deflecting Theodore’s shot from the top of the left circle past Hellebuyck’s glove side.
The Jets cut it to 3-2 at 2:57 of the third period with a power-play goal by Dubois, whose shot from the right side of the crease popped high into the air. Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo tried to swat the puck away and whiffed. The puck then landed on Brossoit’s shoulder and bounced into the net.
Winnipeg pulled Hellebuyck for an extra attacker with 1:20 remaining, and Howden sealed the win by scoring an empty-netter with 16.2 seconds left.
Center Mark Scheifele, who led Winnipeg with 42 goals during the regular-season, left the game in the first period due to an upper-body injury and didn’t return.
–Field Level Media
