Montreal Scores Late To Tie VGK, Then Wins In Overtime Friday; Canadiens Lead Best-of-7 Semifinals, 2-1; Game 4 In Montreal Sunday
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It was time for the postgame zoom press conference and Vegas Golden Knights forwards Mark Stone and Tomas Nosek looked down at times, then stared into space and even looked off to the side between questions.
Their body language told the story of the NHL semifinal, Game 3 in Montreal Friday evening. They were answering questions after a painful and disappointing 3-2 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre after VGK Hall-of-Fame goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury fumbled away a 2-1 lead with only 1:55 left in the final period. Fleury mishandled a puck behind his net, with the puck sliding to the Canadiens’ Josh Anderson, who backhanded the gift into an empty cage.
It tied the game at two. And then Anderson won the game with a little more than seven minutes left in overtime on a 2-on-0 break on Fleury.
And though they were outplayed by the Golden Knights, the Canadiens came away with a win that gave Montreal a 2-1 series lead in the Best-of-7 NHL Final 4 showdown. Game 4 is Sunday in Montreal. The Vegas-Montreal winner plays the winner of Tampa vs the New York Islanders. Tampa leads that series, 2-1.
After the game, VGK players stood up for Fleury, a finalist for the NHL’s best goalie award this season and a Quebec native who grew up about an hour outside Montreal.
“He stood on his head all season.” VGK original Misfit Reilly Smith said. “We have to move forward.”
VGK coach Pete DeBoer said the mojo of the late-game error “carried into the overtime.”
He mentioned the message to Fleury after regulation was, “Let’s dig in and get it back.”
VGK fans took this loss hard, too. A few social media comments give you a taste of the reactions.
About 3,500 fans were allowed in the Montreal arena during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They went away delighted with the Canadiens now two games away from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals.
Meanwhile, the Knights know they have to improve on the power play and in other aspects.
“There’s a lot of things we have to get better at,” Smith said after the game.
The VGK and Canadiens were tied, 1-1, entering the third period and that’s when the numbers guys broke out these numbers: the Knights have outscored opponents, 16-6, in the third period during the playoffs, while the Canadiens are a minus four goals in period three in the postseason. Nic Roy opened the scoring in period two for the Knights before Montreal’s Cole Caufield tied the score at one less than a minute later.
VGK defenseman Alex Pietrangelo scored in period three with a wrist shot from the slot that beat busy Montreal goaltender Carey Price. He stopped 43 of 45 shots. Fleury stopped 24 of 27.
On the Knights’ goal, VGK forward Tomas Nosek did some nice work along the boards to spring Max Pacioretty with a nice pass. Petro received a pass from Patches and fired a shot past Price to give the VGK a 2-1 lead in period three before Montreal tied it with less than two minutes to go.
“We like the way we played today, we really do. We played a great 60 minutes. We have to capitalize on scoring chances,” Stone said after the game.
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With 18,000 fans packed into T-Mobile Arena for VGK playoff games, you might believe that COVID-19 issues are gone.
Wrong. The Canadiens did not have interim head coach Dominique Ducharme behind the bench for Game 3 tonight after he tested positive for COVID-19.
Filling in were assistant coaches Luke Richardson and Alex Burrows, and director of goaltending, Sean Burke. They were in charge behind the bench.
Scoring summary. Source: ESPN
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