Vegas moves 1 win away from Stanley Cup Finals
LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Golden Knights were a 500- to- 1 long shot to win the Stanley Cup before the NHL season began in October. Their surprising inaugural season is still rolling along, and they’re one win shy of a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Reilly Smith scored on a breakaway late in the third period to lead Vegas to a 3- 2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals Friday night.
Vegas can win the conference title and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals by winning Sunday in Winnipeg.
“The last one is always the toughest to get,” Golden Knights goalie Marc- Andre Fleury said.
William Karlsson and Tomas Nosek also scored for Vegas, and Fleury, ninth all- time in postseason wins, turned in another spectacular performance by making 35 saves to earn his 73rd career playoff victory. The veteran goalie, left exposed by the Pittsburgh Penguins for Vegas to select him in the expansion draft, is in position for a third straight Stanley Cup title.
“I think we’ve got to keep the same mind- set,” said Fleury, who has a 1.72 goals- against average and .945 save percentage in the playoffs. “Just take it one game at time and not think too far ahead and be ready to play that next game, because they’re going to be coming hard.”
It’s something the Jets have already been doing, even in their three losses in the series.
Asked how his team has been able to survive Winnipeg’s tenacious attack, Smith replied: “He’s sitting right next to me,” referring to Fleury at the postgame news conference.
But with the game tied at 2, it was Smith who made the big play after racing down the left side of the rink and beating Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck above his blocker to put the Knights ahead with 6: 58 left.
“I know we can win a game, we’re a good enough team,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “We’ve battled. We’ve gone into some pretty heavy environments and won a game that we needed to win.”
The Jets took over where they left off in the third period of Game 3 by outskating the Golden Knights in the first period of Game 4, but Karlsson had the lone goal in the first. Off the draw, Smith found Jonathan Marchessault, who fed Karlsson for the one- timer that gave Vegas a 1- 0 lead.
It was deja vu from Game 3, when Vegas responded 12 seconds after giving up a 1- 0 lead, the Jets and the Knights traded goals 43 seconds apart midway through the second period.
First, it was Patrik Laine’s one- timer on the power play that even Fleury wasn’t catching up to and it tied the game at the 9: 29 mark. Then, it was Hellebuyck failing to secure a shot by Pierre- Edouard Bellemare, who raced to the puck and fed Nosek, who punched in his first career playoff goal to put Vegas up 2- 1.
“It’s a good way to be, when they get one, the next guy’s up and ready to go,” said Golden Knights forward James Neal, who is looking to make it to the Stanley Cup final for a second consecutive year after getting there with Nashville last season. “It’s always hard when you get one and the other team scores right away; it kind of takes the wind right back out of you. For us being at home, it just energizes the building. As soon as it sucks the wind out, boom, huge goal, and we’re back.
“That was a great goal by Nose.”
The Jets outshot the Golden Knights 12- 2 by the midway point of the third period — including Tyler Myers’ tying goal — keeping Fleury busy.
“We win that game nine times out of 10 — tonight was that one,” Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler said. “Their goalie made some extraordinary saves; he’s a good player. You’ve got to sometimes take your hat off to a good player.”