Just when nothing seemed to interfere with this team’s improbable mission, along came a game that seriously challenged its unimaginable path.
Having two goaltender interference calls in one game is extraordinary, but for both to go against the VGK is almost unheard of.
Vegas also sent a parade of players to the penalty box — seven different times. Yes, you’re playing with fire when you undergo an unforgivable breakdown of discipline, hand the opposition one power play after another, and surrender two power-play goals.
During the regular season, Vegas was one of the least penalized team in the NHL, a total of 560 minutes for the entire 82-game season, which averages out to 6.8 minutes per game. The only team with less penalty minutes was Carolina with 512 minutes. Last night, the Knights tripled their average: 18 minutes of penalty time.
Gallant was asked about the parade to the penalty box by his team. “Well, I wasn’t too happy with a lot of it, to be honest with you. I think we had one power play, the one that they flipped in to the stands, and they had seven. I wasn’t too happy.”
Marc-Andre Fleury said, “Discipline. When we play five-on-five, we’re in good shape. Just try to stay out of the box and play our game.”
It clearly showed as they seemed completely out of sync, almost discombobulated at times. Their passes, which are usually tape to tape and a key factor in the breakouts, were missing. The uneven flow of the game played right into San Jose’s hands; Vegas’ speed, which had given the Sharks all they could handle in Game 1, was MIA.
While watching the game, I turned to a fellow media member and said, “If they can keep San Jose off the scoreboard and get out of this first period, they should feel lucky.” Well, something even better happened. With just 2:01 left in the first period and no clear path to Martin Jones, the Sharks’ goaltender, Colin Miller intentionally shot the puck wide of the net, hoping the rebound off the end boards would create a favorable bounce. It seemed like a long shot, but it was the safest play in that situation. It also turned into one of the rare lucky moments for Vegas. The puck came out to William Karlsson, positioned to the right of Jones, and with an almost impossible shooting angle, Karlsson found the tiny opening.
It was the only goal of the first period on the five shots that Vegas could muster. San Jose had nine shots in the first and most of them were quality scoring chances that Fleury stopped.
Fleury had been perfect in the last seven periods that VGK played. The last goal he gave up was way back on Sunday April 15 with 2:04 seconds left in Game 3 against the L.A. Kings. He had back-to-back shutouts in Game 4 of the first round and Game 1 of the second, plus a perfect first period last night.
When William Karlsson scored again, just 26 seconds into the 2nd period to jump ahead of the Sharks 2-0, it seemed like they were really dodging bullets, as they were being outplayed thoroughly.
But those who have followed my blog know full well that I have this theory, which more often than not seems to be spot on: The next team to score in a 2-0 game is usually the winner. So when San Jose scored their first of their two power-play goals just 1:34 after Karlsson’s goal, I once again leaned over to my fellow media friend and said, “That could be trouble.”
You can’t find fault with the way Fleury’s been playing, but he did have a small hiccup. On a shot by the Sharks, he clearly had the puck in his possession and both Vegas defensemen relaxed. But Fleury had other plans and pushed the puck to his left at the feet of Deryk Engelland, who was flat-footed an unable to control it. Tomas Hertl swooped in, took the puck, and moved it out to Logan Couture, who put it past Fleury to tie the game at 2-2.
Two minutes and 59 seconds later, Brent Burns scored his second goal of the night and this was the first of the controversial goal-interference decisions. A few factors led to this goal. The faceoff to Fleury’s left was won by San Jose, who got the puck out to Burns on the point. Instead of sliding across the blue line to take one of the booming slap shots he’s noted for and executed on his first goal last night, he came down the wall. Nate Schmidt vacated the wall, leaving a clear path to the corner that Burns took. With his speed, he went behind Fleury and wrapped the puck around and into the net. Colin Miller and Nate Schmidt were on the other side of the net and Miller was engaged with Shark forward Timo Meier, who was pushed into Fleury, preventing him from getting over to cover the open net. Coach Gallant’s challenge was denied and the Sharks, who had trailed 2-0, were now ahead 3-2 and with Vegas still out of sync, things weren’t looking good.
The 3rd period was barely salvaged by Vegas when Nate Schmidt took a Shea Theodore pass and timed a slap shot from the blue line that beat Martin Jones to tie the game with just 6:32 left in regulation.
Since they’d played maybe 10 minutes of the first 60, they were mighty lucky to get it into overtime. It was a game they didn’t deserve to win, but it appeared to do just that when Jonathan Marchessault came out from behind the net with a Shark defenseman Brenden Dillon right behind him. Shea Theodore’s slap shot hit Marchessault and fell at his feet; he quickly backhanded the loose puck past Martin Jones, who immediately raised his stick to claim he was interfered with. The crowd went wild, the Vegas bench emptied in celebration, but now we were facing our second goaltender-interference call of the night.
The longer they took to decide, the more likely it appeared that they were going to overturn the goal, and after what seemed like five minutes of agonizing torture, the 18,000-plus crowd and the 20 Vegas players were informed the goal was disallowed and play resumed. Two goaltender-interference calls both going against Vegas? You just had a feeling this wasn’t going to be their night.
About the overturned goal, Gallant said, “Those are tough calls. We’ve seen them all year long. Went against us tonight and we move on.”
The game went into a second overtime, which lasted only 5:05, during which Vegas committed two penalties and pretty much handed the Sharks a loaded gun in a fight where the Knights only had a sword.
Logan Couture took a cross-ice pass on the power play and beat Fleury for his second goal of the game to the stick side to end a “knightmare” of a game for Fleury and his team.
If there’s one bright spot to this game, it’s the fact that Vegas landed an egg; even with such a poor performance, they forced the Sharks into five periods of hockey to beat them.
This was the first lost in the post-season for Vegas. They’re a good enough team to take this as a valuable lesson, that you must play every minute of every shift you take. Tonight they didn’t do that.
The series is now tied at 1-1 and now San Jose has home-ice advantage. Game 3 is Monday at San Jose at 7 p.m.
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