Knights on Ice — Mark With a K+, Marc with a C, Plus Nine Unanswered Goals

When the heart and soul of your team is Mark Stone and your goaltender is Marc-Andre Fleury you can beat just about anyone, including the State of Hockey, otherwise known as Minnesota.

Yes, Minnesota is known as the State of Hockey, but a group of misfits from the city of Las Vegas is on the verge of eliminating the Minnesota Wild with last night’s 4-0 victory and taking a commanding 3-1 series lead in the best-of-7-game series.

Teams that lead a best-of-7 by 3 games to 1 go on to win that series .909% of the time (291-29).

The first turning point of this series — there’ve been a few —happened in Game 2. Minnesota won Game 1 despite Marc-Andre Fleury not surrendering any goals in the first 3 periods. Fleury was beaten in overtime on a shot by Joel Eriksson Ek that changed directions off of Alec Martinez’s skate. Minnesota scored first in Game 2 on a Matt Dumba shot for the 1-0 Minnesota lead and this set up the first turning point.

Jonathan Marchessault scored just 18 seconds later to tie the game and change the momentum; Vegas went on to win 3-1 to even the series at 1 game apiece.

The series shifted to Minnesota for Game 3 where Vegas has had trouble winning. They went to Minnesota hoping to win at least 1 game there and gain back home ice advantage, a tall task, considering the past history between these 2 teams. Game 3 didn’t start well with the Wild getting 2 goals early in the first period; then they scored a 3rd goal, which would have been the nail in the coffin, if not for the 2nd turning point. The VGK video coach called down to the bench to inform Coach DeBoer to challenge the goal for offsides—a major risk, considering the consequences. The challenge was correct, the goal was removed from the board, and that was the last time Minnesota scored a goal in this series. Vegas has scored 9 straight goals in Minnesota and 12 straight goals since Game 2.

Yes, Joel Eriksson Ek did momentarily score a goal last night, but once again, video coach Dave Rogowski with the assistance of the VGK goaltending coach Mike Rosati suggested a challenge for goaltender interference, as Marcus Foligno made contact with Fleury. The challenge was correct once again and for the 2nd time in 4 games, Eriksson had another goal removed from the scoreboard. If the goal stood, the game would be tied 1-1 and Vegas would be issued a delay of game penalty.

Not that Vegas should be worried about killing off a penalty, as they’re the #1 team in the NHL on the PK. During the game, a VGK fan, Tom K., who follows my articles, sent me a PM asking when was the last time the VGK gave up a PP goal. I scrambled to try to answer his question, while still keeping one eye on the game.

The answer is the VGK have killed off the last 8 Minnesota power plays in this series and have killed off 18 total in their last 9 games. The last PPG scored on the VGK was back on May 3 by the Wild. During these 18 penalty kills, Vegas scored 2 shorthanded goals, one by Chandler Stephenson and the other, last night, was the next turning point of this series. Mark Stone scored shorthanded while Vegas was attempting to kill off a 4-minute penalty to Zach Whitecloud for high sticking Zach Parise. Stone’s goal made the score 3-0 and that was all that was needed to put a stranglehold on this series. Nicolas Roy, who opened the scoring for the 1-0 lead, added an empty-net goal for the 4-0 win.

The speed of the VGK was on full display last night. They completely dominated the game forecheck wise, neutral zone wise, and goaltending wise. They seemed to win every loose-puck battle. Fleury was once again spectacular and is clearly outplaying Cam Talbot at the other end of the ice.

On Roy’s first goal, he cleared the puck out of danger as it sat in the blue paint in front of Fleury and made a Bobby Orr rush the entire length of the ice before ripping a shot past Talbot. Alex Tuch, who had his own display of his max speed on his goal, called Roy’s goal a snipe.

If you want to know how important the VGK speed is, look no further than their dominance in the 2nd periods of the last 3 games. In the 2nd period, teams are playing with their defensive zone on the opposite side of the ice from their bench — longer changes and more ice to cover defensively. The VGK have outscored Minnesota 7-1 in the 2nd periods of this series. Of the 12 goals they’ve scored, 2 were into empty nets, so 7 of their 10 goals all came in the 2nd period where their speed has given Minnesota more than they can handle.

Other game notes. Post-game, Wild coach Dean Evanson was asked about the disallowed goal. “I thought we handled it well as far as our emotions and what have you, but clearly, clearly, it hurt. Momentum, excitement. It wasn’t like we lost our composure after that, but it did hurt us obviously not to be tied 1-1.”

Fleury faced 9 shots in the first 9 minutes of the game as the Wild attempted to take control, but they fell short had only 2 shots on Fleury in the final 11 minutes of the first period.

When Mark Stone scored, Vegas was 18-1-0. The last team to blow a 3-1 series lead was — you guessed it — the VGK vs. San Jose in 2019. I’m sure current players on the VGK then will have that on their minds tomorrow night.

Vegas has won 5 playoff series in their history. They have never clinched a series at T-Mobile. Tomorrow night, this could become a trivia question that you will know the answer to in the future. Capacity at T-Mobile will be in excess of 11,000 for Game 5. If Vegas were to clinch on Monday night, 111,000 will claim they were there for the VGK first series win at T-Mobile

My 3 Stars of the Game
1) Marc-Andre Fleury (35 saves and his 16th playoff shutout, tied for 3rd all time with Curtis Joseph)
2) Nicolas Roy (2G and the GWG)
3) Mark Stone (1G, shorthanded, while Minnesota was on a 4-minute power play and pretty much sealed the win for Vegas)

Game 5 is tomorrow at T-Mobile 7:30 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.

Roy’s GWG

Tuch blows by the Wild

A few of Fleury’s saves

Stone’s shorthanded goal