The Vegas Golden Knights showed patience and determination when defeating the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 after extra time in Game 5 of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Golden Knights did it after showing proof of high morale and work capacity in the fifth game. Vegas turned 0-2 to 3-2.
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Mark Stone scored the winning goal 50 seconds into overtime when he first covered a shot in his own zone and then took advantage of a quick game-turning pass from Max Pacioretty and sent the puck into the net roof behind Philipp Grubauer i Colorado-buren.
– Sometimes when backs shoot, they lose speed, says Vegas match winners. I was lucky to be able to decide the match.
– It was “vintage” Mark Stone there. He covered a shot in our zone first and got a free kick and put it with a perfect shot. If there’s a game sequence that symbolizes him, it’s it. He did a shitty job at our goal and since the decision before us, says Vegas coach Peter DeBoer.
Video: COL-VGK M5: Stone match winner for Vegas in match 5
Vegas was bad out in the game after that Brandon Saad and Joonas Donskoi gave Avalanche the lead with 2-0 before the third period. Vegas came back, however, by mercilessly using Colorado’s puck pin and equalizing to 2-2 through Alex cloth and Jonathan Marchessault.
– It was incredibly important for us to get an early goal in the third period, Stone says. Tuch is a big guy with nice hands and he did it nicely. It gave us another boost and we felt determined.
The Golden Knights goalkeeper Marc-Andre Fleury was an important key to the Golden Knights’ turnaround. The goalkeeper who shook off a mistake at Avalanche 1-0 goal in the last second of the first period, and accounted for several strong saves during the rest of the match. Fleury stopped 27 of 29 shots in the match (93.3 save percentage).
[De senaste nyheterna från serien mellan Avalanche-Golden Knights]
– It was not so fun to let in the first goal, says Fleury. You feel a little stupid. I thought I could just catch the puck but the shot came much slower than I thought. When I was younger I would probably have kneaded it more, but now you have been for a while and the boys peppered me in the locker room during the break. I knew we could work our way back into the game.
– We knew that Fleury would shake off that first goal quickly and we knew that the group would close behind him, says coach DeBoer. He has saved the team countless times this season when we made mistakes higher up the track. I did not doubt for a second that both he and the team would rise.
– We were saved several times by “Flower” in goal that made a couple of incredible saves for us. I do not know how he managed to stop them from scoring, says Stone about Fleury’s double save then Gabriel Landeskog and J.T. Compher tried right at the beginning of overtime. The match should have been over there.
Video: COL-VGK M5: Tuch outsmarts Grubauer from close range
The victory in Ball Arena means that the Golden Knights became the first team to win away in the match series and now has the chance to secure promotion to the semifinals at home in T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.
– For us, it does not matter if it is home or away, says Fleury. The team made a strong effort and tonight we go to bed with a smile on our face, but tomorrow the seriousness starts again. Nothing has been decided yet and we must prepare in exactly the same way we did before.
– We have played to the chance to move on thanks to our breadth in the squad and ability to roll on with four chains and three back pairs, says coach DeBoer. We meet a very good opponent who won the Presidents Trophy in the regular season. There will be periods when we have to focus on defending ourselves, but the guys have shown that we can really bite each other and together find ways to win.
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