EDMONTON – The Golden Knights overturned the script on the children back from the NHL on Saturday evening in Rogers Place.
Vegas joined a deficit at the start of two goals to beat Edmonton 4-3 for his first victory in the second-round series on a goal beating the Reilly Smith buzzer with 0.4 seconds in the match. He came after Connor McDavid equalized the match for the Oilers with just over three minutes to play.
Reilly Smith with 0.4 seconds on the left wins for Vegas pic.twitter.com/yhruhizdh6
– Sportsnet (@Sportnetnet) May 11, 2025
The victory reduces the Edmonton series led to 2-1, with the home team who has not yet won in the series.
Corey Perry gave a perfect start for the Oilers with two goals in the first nine minutes of the match. The 39 -year -old man showed that he always had the touch to open the scoring with a wrist blow perfectly placed in transition after McDavid delayed and found him lying on the game.
A few minutes later, Perry fought his way forward of Vegas net on a Edmonton food game, and deflected a shot from Evan Bouchard after Adin Hill to do it 2-0.
Vegas responded quickly with two goals in less than a minute to equalize 2-2 before the first intermission. Nicolas Roy took advantage of a piloting rebound by Stuart Skinner in front of the Edmonton net, then Smith entered and died Skinner 54 seconds later.
William Karlsson gave Vegas the advance at the end of the second period, and the Golden Knights locked up defensively in the third period, granting only 20 shots in total in the match.
After granting two goals on the first four shots, Hill found his rhythm. At the other end, Skinner had a hard time in his first departure in seven games, granting four goals on 24 shots in relief from Calvin Pickard, who was injured in match 2.
Vegas defender Brayden McNabb surprised a lot by playing after leaving with an injury at the end of the match 2 and missing morning skating on Saturday. He gave the Golden Knights 19 minutes and held up in several difficult battles at front.
This is the second time that the Golden Knights have won match 3 after having lagged 2-0 in a eliminatory series. They also did it against Colorado in 2021 and won the next three games to eliminate the 4-2 avalanche in the second round.
Stuart Skinner is not in the return loop
The way Pickard was supporting the six consecutive victories – whose last one made his trainer that he had “stolen” for the team – Skinner was difficult to return to the net. The only real path for goalkeeper No. 1 of the third year of the Oilers to recover his work was that Pickard suffered an injury.
Well, this is exactly what happened as a pickard, despite a 5-4 victory in overtime in match 2, was too injured to make his seventh consecutive departure. And, although Skinner had solid moments in his return, he was not good enough because he gave four goals on 24 shots.
During the first goal of Golden Knights, he could not manage a shot from Nicolas Hague, which made a rebound sits for free for an uncontrolled Nicolas Roy. He was not mistaken to get Vegas on the board and reduced Edmonton’s advance to 3:17 p.m. from the first period.
Smith equaled the score 54 seconds later on a chance at Close after going around the Oilers winger, Vasily Podkolzin. Smith finished the game by entering the washer through Skinner’s legs.
Skinner made some big stops on Tomas Hertl in the second period, including an enveloping, but he could not try a Karlsson attempt at the race. This gave the Golden Knights their first advantage of the game.
And then there was the breathtaking winning goal.
Things did not go well to Skinner the last time that these two teams met in the playoffs in 2023. He was fired in three of his last four departures and sported a percentage of .875 stops in the six -game series won by Vegas. He had rebounded since then against the Golden Knights, displaying a percentage of stops of .914 in six departures.
It is sure to say, however, the work on Saturday recalled these after-season difficulties more than the regular season turnaround.
The consistency of the lines finally ends – and successfully
Except for a few adjustments here and there, the Oilers had used the same Top Six since the third period of their return victory of match 4 against the Kings and the same lines since match 5.
Well, it finally ended on Saturday. The first and second trios obtained a youthful cure before the third period with the downwards of a goal.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman have reassured their usual positions on the wings of McDavid. Meanwhile, the recent usual teammates of McDavid, Draisaitl and Perry, were moved to the second line. There, Draisaitl centered Perry and Evander Kane.
More changes came in the back half of the frame. The Oilers recharged their upper line with Hyman instead of Perry. With Draisaitl with McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins centered Kane and Perry (and also Viktor Arvidsson).
The second set of changes worked while McDavid swept through a washer of McNabb’s stick and by hill with 3:02 to play in the third to equalize the match.
The oilers were for a kind of reshuffle. They generated shortly after the two goals of Perry in the first period and only managed 20 shots on the net.
Draisaitl, in particular, had a difficult night. He failed to capitalize on a beautiful flow of McDavid in the first period when he hit the crossbar. Overall, he only succeeded in two assists. To worsen things, a turnover of the offensive blue line led to the first goal against and a bad line change was partly to blame for the Golden Knights obtaining an odd rush and Karlsson marking the goal of departure.
And it was before hitting Smith’s shot in the net before the buzzer.
Overflow
Check your calendars to make sure it is not in 2011. Because it certainly seemed according to the way Perry played in the first period.
Perry scored twice before the match had 12 minutes and presented some of the features that those around him recently delighted in the process.
Halfway from the Los Angeles series, Draisaitl praised Perry’s ability to “read the play before she occurs” and the way he can “maneuver in situations to succeed. »» Perry did all this during his first goal. He found ice open inside the Golden Knights area, accepted a McDavid pass, hired to bypass Ivan Barbashev, then shot the grain on Hill, which went down early.
Less than four minutes later, Perry scored on the power game. Perry obtained more time on the higher unit on Hyman because Knoblauch said in the Kings match that he values the “touch and fitness” of the veteran. These skills were exposed when he took a tour of Evan Bouchard’s shooting.
The way Perry was able to follow and style with McDavid and Draisaitl on the upper line for a good part of these playoffs – although while giving up time to Hyman and Kane – was so useful to the Oilers. His game is part of the reason why coach staff have been able to use the dynamic duo so much and always has balanced programming.
Perry now has five goals in nine playoffs, after his effort of 19 goals in 81 regular season competition. Oh, and he is 40 on Friday.
Vegas loses his captain early
Golden Knights winger Mark Stone left the match after only six teams and never returned. He lost an advantage in the neutral zone and collided with Perry going down, but played three quarters more before leaving the last time with 6:20 to do in the first period.
Stone was then excluded with an upper body injury, forcing the Golden Knights to play the two remaining periods with 11 attackers. This is obviously a massive loss for Vegas. Stone finished second in the team in points both in the regular season (67 points) and the playoffs (eight points).
Stone scored twice in match 1 of this series and played a factor in the three goals of Vegas that evening. In match 2, he collected two other assists, binding it with Jack Eichel for the most points by all the players in the series. He is the emotional leader of the team, plays difficult matches and even strength and is a key element of the two special teams.
William Karlsson’s big night
The back against the proverbial cords, the Golden Knights needed an exceptional performance of a star player and Karlsson was their best player for most of the night. The center gave Vegas its first advance at the end of the second period on a beautiful donation with Noah Hanifin in transition capped by a large Karlsson shot which beat Skinner on the short side.
As is generally the case for Karlsson, he was as impressive without the washer as he was with it. He tracked up the defensively Edmonton stars, buzzing around the ice, forcing reversals in the neutral zone and winning puck battles along the boards.
Karlsson created opportunities for his teammates regularly and could have had an even greater night if they finished some more chances. It was so good defensively that with the last change, Knoblauch avoided the match with Karlsson for his stars. McDavid played less than three minutes of force against Karlsson, while Draisaitl played six and a half minutes against him.
Especially if Stone will miss the time, the Golden Knights will count strongly on Karlsson to move forward in this series.
(Photo: Leila Devlin / Getty Images)
