Vegas solves Demko in Game 7 win

The Golden Knights were having enough problems solving Thatcher Demko. Then came another big obstacle — a major penalty that brought back memories of the team’s collapse in last year’s postseason.

“You’ve got to think it crossed our mind a little bit,” Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “Every team, we’re going to face adversity — a hot goalie, or a five-minute major or something like that, but our team was able to kill it off.”

The Golden Knights withstood a major penalty and ejection to Ryan Reaves in the second period, and Shea Theodore finally put the puck past Demko in the third, lifting Vegas to a 3-0 win over the Canucks on Friday night in Game 7 of the second-round series. Reaves has been suspended for Game 1 of the Western Conference final against Dallas for the illegal check.

Theodore’s goal with 6:08 remaining was the first in 138:40 for the Golden Knights against Demko, the rookie goalie who had brought Vancouver back from a 3-1 deficit in the series and held off Vegas for most of this game, too.

“There was times it felt like we could have played for six hours and not scored on him,” Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said.

Theodore scored a power-play goal on a wrist shot from the blue line that slipped through traffic and past Demko, who had made 98 consecutive saves. Alex Tuch and Paul Stastny added empty-net goals.

“That’s a good hockey team. They beat us tonight and deserved to win,” Canucks coach Travis Green said.

Islanders hold off Flyers: Scott Mayfield and Andy Greene scored in the first period, Brock Nelson added one in the second and Anthony Beauvillier shut the door in the third with an empty-net goal to lead the Islanders to a 4-0 win over the Flyers in Game 7 on Saturday. The Flyers had crawled back from a 3-1 deficit in the series, but Thomas Greiss shut them out, stopping all 16 shots that came his way.