The stage was set.
The crowd of 12,156 was ready and T-Mobile was prepared to host a series-clinching game for the first time in VGK history.
Mark Stone was ready, willing, and able to make this all happen, taking a touch pass from Alex Tuch along the left side boards. Stone picked up the pass at the blue line, blew by both Wild defensemen, Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin, and ripped his shot past Cam Talbot’s outstretched glove for the first of what 12,156 assumed would be a slew of VGK goals. It was Stone’s 4th of the series and the 13th unanswered goal.
But just 52 seconds later, things got a bit sideways. Shea Theodore on the half-wall threw a puck toward Mark Stone, skating into the slot toward Talbot. The pass was picked off by Kirill Kaprizov, who pushed the puck up to Matt Zuccarello; he weaved his way through his defensive zone, then through the neutral zone past 4 VGK players. After crossing the blueline, he slid right to left drawing, all 5 VGK players with him and causing Chandler Stephenson and Brayden McNabb to collide, knocking each other off their skates.
Following the play was rookie sensation Kirill Kaprizov, who’d been held without a goal in the first 4 games. That all changed when he picked up the cross-ice pass all alone on the right-side boards. He skated toward Fleury. Once he got to the right faceoff circle, he sent in a laser shot to tie the game and put the party celebrations on hold.
Just 2:51 after Kaprizov’s goal, Zach Parise, a healthy scratch the first 3 games, banked a puck off Fleury from behind the goal line for a 2-1 lead — a lead Minnesota would never surrender despite the VGK’s tremendous push in the 2nd period. When Minnesota scored the 3rd goal just 4:37 later, the hill was just too big to climb.
The VGK limited the Wild to just 1 shot in the 2nd period, while Vegas had 22 on Talbot. Vegas had 40 shot attempts to the Wild’s 3. But the scoreboard told a different story when the game ended with 40 shots for Vegas, 14 for Minnesota when the game ended.
Alec Martinez scored a power-play goal 9:43 into the 2nd period to give the VGK and the 12,156 the hope that maybe, just maybe, the party wasn’t canceled after all. Vegas pushed the pace and kept the pressure on for the remainder of the game as Minnesota seemed content to protect their 2-goal, then 1-goal, lead. But the Knights could never find the elusive 3rd goal to get to overtime.
When you look back at the first period, you realize that Fleury and the VGK gave up 3 goals on the Wild’s first 4 shots of the game, a complete reversal of what Fleury and the team had done defensively over the first 4 games. The Wild had scored 4 goals in the first 4 games. Last night, they scored 3 goals in the first 16:34 of the first period.
They added their 4th goal with Fleury on the bench for the extra skater. A missed pass from the Wild with seconds remaining slid all the way down the ice into the vacated net with Alex Pietrangelo desperately trying to catch up to it. The puck beat Pietrangelo across the goal line as he crashed into the net and the end boards. The party was over.
I’m not sure how you feel about this, but I’m more than okay closing this series out in Minnesota on Wednesday. We can save a series-clinching game for a different round during these playoffs.
Other Game Notes. Reilly Smith claimed post-game that the VGK were victims of self-inflicted wounds. I’m not sure if it was more of a case of unfortunate bounces, along with a desperate team fighting for their playoff lives.
Pete DeBoer claimed that if this game were replayed 10 times, the VGK would win 9. I’m not sure if giving up 3 goals on 4 shots is a way to win the other 9 times.
The VGK have lost 7 in 9 attempts to win a series-clinching game. Marc-Andre Fleury is 14-20 in series-clinching games and has lost 4 straight with the VGK now, the 3 vs. San Jose in 2019 and last night. The home team in this series has won only 1 home game; so much for home ice advantage. The pressure remains on Minnesota and will stay that way unless a Game 7 is necessary on Friday night at T-Mobile. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to go to a Game 7 on Friday.
My 3 Stars of the Game
1) Cam Talbot (who just seems to play well at T-Mobile, 38 saves on 40 shots)
2) Matt Zuccarello (his end-to-end rush and weak-side pass that set up the Kaprizov goal killed the momentum that Stone’s goal created)
3) Zach Parise (GWG with a bank shot off Fleury from behind the goal line)
Game 6 is tomorrow in Minnesota at 6 p.m. Pacific Time
If you want to hear and see more VGK content please check out the podcast I do with Eddie Rivkin on YouTube, “Hockey Knights in Vegas.”
Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you may contact me directly at [email protected] or on my Facebook page or the Facebook page of Vegas Hockey Guy or on Twitter @TheRealJoePane
One other note: If you’re reading this blog from Facebook or Twitter and would like to access it earlier in the morning before I share it on social media, it’s usually published by 8 a.m. the morning after a game on LasVegasAdvisor.com. What better way is there to enjoy your morning coffee than reading my take on last night’s VGK game.
Zuccarello and Kaprizov respond to Stone’s goal
Martinez PPG that made the game close
Petro’s attempt to stop the empty net goal and the Wild celebration
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No luck Wednesday, either. Well, maybe Friday.
While I do think that LVK is the superior team, you have to prove it on the ice. Sports history is littered with superior teams that lose.