Momentum a non-factor in overtime games
Knights-Sharks series proof tying goals don’t always equate to playoff victories
Desperation turns to jubilation in the NHL playoffs when a trailing team scores the tying goal late in regulation to force overtime. That sudden change of emotions would figure to fuel a team’s momentum in overtime. But that’s not always the case, as evidenced this week when teams that squandered a late lead bounced back in overtime to earn a win.
Vegas and San Jose experienced both sides of that roller-coaster the past two games.
The Golden Knights celebrated William Karlsson’s goal in overtime in Game 3 after San Jose tied the game up late in regulation at the Shark Tank on Monday. That came two nights after San Jose saw the Golden Knights’ Nate Schmidt tie Game 2 with 6:32 left only to end up on the winning side on Logan Couture’s power-play goal in the second overtime.
“You just move on,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “It’s playoff hockey. We were disappointed when they scored with roughly two minutes left in the hockey game. We regrouped in the overtime session between periods and said, ‘Let’s go out there and get this game.’ ”
Nashville also had an OT victory after Winnipeg tied it late in Game 2 Sunday, and Columbus did it to Washington in Game 2 of their first-round series.
The Blue Jackets are the only team this post-season to force overtime with a goal in the final five minutes and win, having done it in Game 1 against the Capitals. For all the talk of late-game momentum, teams scoring those late goals are just 7-8 in overtime the past two post-seasons.
“We weren’t too happy with this as a team,” said Vegas goalie MarcAndre Fleury, who made Karlsson’s winner possible by robbing Couture earlier in the OT. “But everyone was relaxed between periods. We talked and we knew what we had to do.” Momentum can be fleeting in the playoffs, whether in a game or a series. No team won consecutive games to start the second round. The Sharks will try to put the Game 3 loss in the past and tie their series 2-2 Wednesday.
“It’s easy,” Couture said. “The schedule-makers did a good job of playing games every other day, so it’s easy to forget about a game when you’ve got another one (coming). We’re down 2-1. It doesn’t matter how you got there or what the score was in any of the games, we’re down 2-1 and we’ve got a big game.”
The Bruins will look to do the same when their second-round series against Tampa Bay shifts to Boston for Game 3 on Wednesday night.
Boston won the opener handily 6-2 before falling in Game 2 in Tampa Bay 4-2 on Monday night. “I think that feel-good from winning, you take that emotion into the next game,” Lightning forward Chris Kunitz said.
“But each game has its own identity, you can’t rest on what you did last game and just hope they walk away.”
STAY OUT OF THE BOX
The Sharks were one of the best teams in the regular season at avoiding penalties, going shorthanded just 2.7 times per game for the fourth-lowest mark in the league.
That discipline has been missing this round as Vegas has received 18 power plays in three games. The Golden Knights converted five, including two in a three-goal barrage in a span of less than five minutes of the second period in Game 2. San Jose also went short-handed twice in overtime Monday night in Game 3 for having too many men on the ice and for delay of game. “Obviously their two power-play goals swing the momentum in the second period, but I didn’t think our discipline or penalties were a problem, just one of those nights,” coach Peter DeBoer said.
ALL TIED UP
Even though Vegas has taken a 2-1 series lead over San Jose, all four second-round series stood tied after two games.
This is just the fourth time since 1975 that teams split the first two games in all four series in the second round.
It also happened in 1991, 1986 and 1984.