Vegas scratches out a split
Fleury bounces back, while Marchessault squelches comeback bid
Jonathan Marchessault scored twice and MarcAndre Fleury made 30 saves as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 on Monday night to even the Western Conference final 1-1.
Tomas Tatar also scored for the expansion Knights, while Reilly Smith added two assists. Kyle Connor replied for the Jets, who got 25 saves from Connor Hellebuyck.
The series now shifts to Sin City for Game 3 on Wednesday and Game 4 on Friday.
Game 5 will be back in Winnipeg on Sunday afternoon.
Fleury, who has four shutouts in these playoffs, picked up the 71st post-season victory of his career to pull even with Jacques Plante for ninth on the all-time list.
The Jets beat the Knights 4-2 in Saturday’s series opener some 48 hours after disposing of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Nashville Predators 5-1 on the road in Game 7 of a secondround matchup.
Winnipeg came out fast with three goals in the first eight minutes at a thunderous Bell MTS Place in that one against Vegas, which had a five-day break following a six-game defeat of the San Jose Sharks.
After the Jets had a number of chances during an early push Monday — including a shot from Mark Scheifele that nearly squeaked through Fleury’s pads and a Nikolaj Ehlers shot off the post on the short side — Winnipeg sagged a bit before Vegas opened the scoring with 6:37 left in the first period.
A healthy scratch for seven of the Knights’ first 11 playoff games, Tatar scored his first of the post-season off a slick feed from Shea Theodore at the side of Winnipeg’s net. The veteran forward’s initial shot hit the post, but a great second effort saw him jam the puck past Hellebuyck.
The visitors made it 2-0 with 2:38 left in the period when Connor turned the puck over in the neutral zone, leading to a breakaway for Marchessault, who made no mistake through Hellebuyck’s pads for his fifth.
Erik Haula hit the post on an- other break before the puck bounced off Hellebuyck’s back and just went wide as Vegas outshot Winnipeg 8-0 in the second half of the period until Brandon Tanev’s 70-foot wrister with five seconds left. The Jets got some momentum off a penalty kill early in the second period, but couldn’t solve Fleury on any of their eight shots in a period that also saw Andrew Copp hit the post. Winnipeg broke Fleury’s shutout bid at 7:17 of the third on the Jets’ second power play of the period, when Connor’s shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle squeaked by Fleury.
But Marchessault scored his second of the night and sixth of the playoffs just 1:28 later when he took a pass from Smith and beat Hellebuyck with a backhand.