Pandemic Playoffs: VGK One Win From Western Conference Finals After 5-3 Triumph Over Vancouver With Fleury In Goal Sunday
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Marc-Andre Fleury’s fans celebrated even before the Golden Knights played the Vancouver Canucks in Game 4 of their Best-of-7 series at the NHL Bubble in Edmonton.
Fleury, the three-year-old franchise’s most popular player yet now a back-up to starting goalie Robin Lehner during the Pandemic Playoffs, was back in goal for the VGK.
The Golden Knights entered the game winning nine of 11 games at the Rogers Place arena and continued their winning ways with a 5-3 win over the upstart Canucks to gain a 3-1 lead in the first-to-four-wins series. The playoff victory for Fleury was number 81 in his Hall-of-Fame career, putting him sixth on the all-time playoff win list for goaltenders.
The Knights’ Max Pacioretty, Vegas’ top goal-scorer during the regular season, opened the scoring in period one off a feed from linemate Mark Stone.
But the Canucks’ talented Elias Pettersson went top-shelf to beat Fleury to knot the score at one.
The Knights countered with a goal by Chandler Stephenson on a play that began with a crunching check by VGK’s hard-hitting forward, Ryan Reaves, and ended with Stephenson scoring off a wrist shot from a pass from VGK defenseman Shea Theodore, with VGK’s William Carrier applying an effective screen in front of Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom.
In period two, Vancounver captain Bo Horvat tied the game for the second time at 2-2. It was goal number nine in the postseason for Horvat, an emerging star leading all scorers in goals in the NHL Bubbles in Edmonton and Toronto.
VGK fans who adore Fleury enjoy his acrobatic saves, like this vintage play in period two.
Vancouver took a 3-2 lead thanks to a Tyler Toffoli off a pretty assist from defenseman Quinn Hughes, a talented 20-year-old blueliner from Orlando, Florida and the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Hughes assisted on Vancouver’s two power-play goals. It was Hughes’ 12th assist in the postseason.
Vancouver’s six-foot, six-inch goalie, Markstrom, played an effective second period as the Knights trailed by a goal heading into period three after two of the three Canucks goals were power-play tallies.
Early in period three, VGK kept the puck in the Canucks zone for an extended time and defenseman Jon Merrill, in the lineup for Nick Holden, fed Nate Schmidt with a short pass and Schmidt blasted a slapshot by Markstrom to knot the score at three. Schmidt had a VGK message for the Knights faithful on Twitter after the third period push.
Then Pacioretty scored his second goal of the game after Vancouver had a great scoring chance to give the Knights a 4-3 lead with more than 12 minutes left in regulation.
The William Karlsson- Stone-Pacioretty line struck again when Karlsson directed the puck into the goal in front of the Vancouver net to give VGK a 5-3 lead mid-way through the final stanza.
The Knights held on for the win after Fleury was called for a delay of game penalty for batting the puck out of the rink.
With 10 wins out of 12 games in the Bubble, VGK look to clinch the series in Game 5 Tuesday.
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