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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
The Vegas Golden Knights squeezed out a big 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers Friday and travel to Edmonton for Game 6 Sunday in hopes of closing out the Round 2 series and advancing to the Western Conference Finals.
The Knights relied on three goals in 89 seconds in the second period to grab a 4-2 lead and then held on for dear life in period three to win Game 5 in the second round Best-of-7 series.
“That segment in the second period hobbled us,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game.
The Oilers scored all of their three goals with a man advantage, but VGK coach Bruce Cassidy said the Knights power play kill was still respectable during the game.
The Knights allowed one goal during a five-minute PK against Edmonton and VGK winger Jonathan Marchessault called that a “win.”
“We bend, but didn’t break,” Cassidy said of killing the five-minute major against Keegan Kolesar by allowing one goal.
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The fans were on line at the T-Mobile Arena box office well before the windows opened at 12 noon, hungry for tickets for tonight’s pivotal Game 5 between the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers.
With the Round 2 series locked at two games apiece, the Oilers’ vaunted power play hurt the Golden Knights with two first period goals by superstar Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman.
Edmonton led Vegas, 2-1, after one period.
The Knights’ Jack Eichel tallied Vegas’ score. The Oilers challenged Eichel’s goal on goalie interference. But it was ruled a good goal. VGK came up empty on the subsequent power play for Edmonton’s unsuccessful challenge.
Right after faceoff, the VGK’s own ticket resale site had the cheapest ticket selling for $109, plus fees. Attendance was announced at 18,519 tonight.
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The Golden Knights showed they have some power play juice, too, in the second period.
With the VGK on a 5-on-3 power play, both Mark Stone and Reilly Smith scored man advantage goals to give Vegas a 3-2 lead.
A minute after Smith’s goal VGK defenseman Nic Hague scored his first of the postseason for a 4-2 Knights lead. Three VGK goals in 89 seconds.
Hague’s goal knocked out Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, who was replaced by netminder Jack Campbell.
But with only 20.9 seconds left in the period, Keegan Kolesar was hit with a five-minute boarding major to give Edmonton’s devastating power play a chance to cut into the Knights’ two-goal lead when the third period started.
After two periods, VGK 4 Edmonton 2
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The Knights had to kill a penalty for four and a half minutes to start the third period.
They yielded McDavid’s second power play goal of the night to see their lead shrink to 4-3.
But the Knights held on.
After the loss, Woodcroft was confident Edmonton would win Game 6 Sunday and force Game 7 here in Las Vegas next week.
In the Eastern Conference, the Florida Panthers knocked Toronto out of the playoffs with an overtime win and will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final in a battle is sunbelt markets.
If Dallas wins more game over Seattle in the Western Conference, the Stars will reach the conference final to play the Vegas/Edmonton winner.