Golden Knights Claw Their Way Back Into First Round Series, Defeating Winnipeg, 5-2, Before 18,333 Thursday
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Mark Stone went into a frenzy, the kind of emotional release you’d expect from a guy who underwent back surgery in the middle of the season and was so grateful to lace up the skates and get a taste of Stanley Cup hockey.
Stone tapped in a nice pass off Chandler Stephenson’s stick to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 4-2 advantage over the Winnipeg Jets with about seven minutes to go in the third period and helped secure a series-tying Game 2 win at T-Mobile Arena Thursday night. He then fired a goal past Winnipeg netminder Connor Hellebuyck with 2:30 left in the game to seal the Knights’ 5-2 win.
The first round series is tied at a game apiece with the Best-of-7 matchup moving to Winnipeg for Game 3 on Saturday.
Attendance was announced at 18,333. It should be noted that the National Hockey League receives a share of the ticket revenues at playoff games.
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It was the Jets that opened the scoring tonight.
Winnipeg’s pesky third-line center, Adam Lowry, scored the sole goal in period one.
The Knights countered in period two.
Their best player in the first round series so far, William Karlsson, found a loose puck in the slot and fired a bullet past Hellebuyck and the Knights were back in the game nearly six minutes into the middle stanza.
Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy praised Karlsson’s play, noting he had a jump in his skate even after playing all 82 games.
Then about five minutes later, center Jack Eichel adroitly redirected the puck off a shot from the point from defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and the VGK had clawed their way into the lead at 2-1.
Cassidy said that after the first period, the team cleaned up some problems and played better in period two.
But at 16:01 Kevin Stenlund beautifully redirected a pass from Saku Maenalanen past VGK goalie Laurent Brossoit and Winnipeg came back to tie the game at two after two periods in Game 2.
But Stephenson scored in the third period to crack the tie and give the Knights a 3-2 lead before Stone’s two goals clinched the Game 2 win. Stephenson enjoyed that go-ahead goal.
The series is going at least to Game 5 back here in Las Vegas next Thursday on April 27.’
