Despite trailing 3-0 after the first period in Game 3 of their Western Conference playoff series with Colorado on Sunday night, Vegas center William Karlsson said his team took the glass half-full approach heading into the locker room.
“Well, the good thing was there were 40 minutes still to play,” Karlsson said. “There’s lots of time, and we all know in the sport of hockey (things) can turn around real quick, so we always had the belief.”
Karlsson had a goal and an assist as the host Golden Knights scored five consecutive goals to pull out a 5-3 victory over the Avalanche to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. It marked the first time in 20 playoff games in franchise history that the Golden Knights came back to win a game when trailing by three or more goals.
Tomas Hertl scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, Mark Stone had a goal and an assist, Mitch Marner and Kaedan Korczak each had two assists, and Keegan Kolesar and Brett Howden also scored goals. Carter Hart finished with 32 saves for Vegas, which needs just one more win to clinch its third trip to the Stanley Cup Final in its nine years. Game 4 is Tuesday in Las Vegas.
Jack Drury scored a short-handed goal, Devon Toews had two assists and Nazem Kadri and Gabriel Landeskog also scored goals for Colorado. Scott Wedgewood made 18 saves for the Avalanche, who lost for just the second time in 76 playoff games (74-2) when holding a three-goal lead.
“We threw everything we had at them, and it didn’t bounce our way tonight,” Landeskog said.
Colorado, already in a deep hole after losing the first two games of the series at home, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening 7:03 on goals by Landeskog, who tucked in a rebound of a Toews shot inside the right post, and Kadri, who fired in a wrist shot from the high slot past Hart’s blocker side off a pass by Martin Necas.
Pavel Dorofeyev then punched in a rebound on the power play for the Golden Knights but the goal was quickly waved off because officials ruled he used his hand, wrapped around his stick, to guide the puck into the net. After a lengthy video review, the initial ruling was upheld.
Forty-three seconds later, the Avalanche then extended the lead to 3-0 on Drury’s first career playoff short-handed goal when he slipped a backhand shot around Hart’s left pad at the end of a breakaway.
Vegas, outshot 16-7 in the first period, needed only 12:46 into the second period to tone, back after missing five games with a lower-body injury, made it 3-1 just 19 seconds into the period on a power play when he redirected Marner’s pass inside the right post for his fourth playoff goal.
Karlsson followed with his first playoff goal, firing in a rebound from the edge of the right circle over Wedgewood’s glove.
Kolesar then tied it when he deflected a Dylan Coghlan shot off the right post and then tapped the rebound into an open net for his first goal and point of this year’s playoffs.
Things went from bad to worse a few minutes later when Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon, who led the league with 53 regular-season goals, crumbled to the ice after getting hit on his right knee by a Shea Theodore one-timer he was blocking. MacKinnon saw limited time on the ice the rest of the game.
Despite blowing the 3-0 lead, the Avalanche remained confident heading into the final period.
“Three-three going into the third period on the road in a Western Conference final, it’s a situation you’d take,” Wedgewood said.
Hertl then gave Vegas its first lead at the 8:21 mark of the third period, rushing down the left wing and then cutting inside defenseman Sam Malinski and snapping a backhand shot past Wedgewood’s blocker side for what became the game-winner.
It was the third goal in the last six games for Hertl following a 29-game goal drought.
“I’m just happy it got in and we got the win because, obviously, it wasn’t easy before the playoffs and the start of the playoffs,” Hertl said. “I’m so happy I can chip in with some plays.”
The Avalanche pulled Wedgewood for an extra attacker with 1:45 to go and Howden sealed the win with an empty-netter with 57.9 seconds left, his 10th goal of the playoffs.
Colorado, which cruised to winning the President’s Trophy with 121 points, now must win four elimination games in a row to get to the Stanley Cup Final.
“It’s low, it’s as low as it can get because you know you’ve got a big hill to climb,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar replied when asked about his team’s emotion afterward. “That’s what the next 24 to 36 hours is for. You’ve got to find a way to get over it, regroup, and go again.”
“If any group can do it, it’s this group,” Wedgewood said. “Obviously, it stings. … Got to find a way to win just one and start the train.”
–Field Level Media
