Hyman breaks tie with 3:02 remaining for Edmonton; Stone scores twice for Vegas
Oilers at Golden Knights | Recap | Round 2, Game 1
LAS VEGAS — Zach Hyman scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period for the Edmonton Oilers, who rallied for a 4-2 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.
Hyman took a pass from Evander Kane and roofed a wrist shot over Adin Hill‘s glove from the top of the right circle to make it 3-2 at 16:58.
EDM@VGK, Gm1: Hyman rings it off the post and in, putting the Oilers on top in the 3rd
Connor Brown then made it 4-2 at 18:14 after moving around Shea Theodore on an individual rush.
Leon Draisaitl also scored in the third period, Connor McDavid had two assists, and Calvin Pickard made 15 saves for the Oilers, who are the No. 3 seed from the Pacific Division.
Edmonton became the first team in NHL history to earn five consecutive comeback wins in a single postseason.
“We’d like to get a better start, first goal, and cruise from there,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We know that’s not the case, but we’re going to have to see what happens. I think if you can pick a period that you’re going to be the strongest in as a coach, you want to be best in the third period because that’s where it’s going to come down to.”
EDM@VGK, Gm1: Draisaitl backhands the rebound out of mid-air to even the score early in the 3rd
Mark Stone scored twice, and Hill made 24 saves for the Golden Knights, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be here on Thursday (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“In the second period, we got caught in the wrong end of the momentum swing,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “… We never got any sustainable pressure, right? So, we couldn’t get an opportunity to wear them down. I think the second period, that’s where we’re typically good in our transition. They’re good at it, too, obviously, but that’s where they got the advantage.”
Stone gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 2:13 of the first period when William Karlsson’s redirection of Theodore’s point shot deflected in off his shin at the left post.
Stone scored his second of the period at 9:03 to make it 2-0. He took a pass from Jack Eichel as the trailer on a rush, skated around a sliding Corey Perry, and beat Pickard five-hole from the right hash marks.
“Not the outcome we wanted,” Stone said. “There were some good parts of the game, some bad parts of the game. We’ll go over it and get ready for Thursday night’s game because it’s going to be a big one for us.”
EDM@VGK, Gm1: Stone whips in a wrister to double the lead with his second
Perry cut it to 2-1 at 16:26 of the first. He received a backdoor pass from McDavid, cut back across the crease, and slid the puck past the left pad of Hill, who was moving the other way.
“It’s huge to find a way to get one before the end of the period,” Perry said. “That was our mentality after they scored the second one, let’s start going here. Let’s get that next one and see where this goes from there. Those two guys (McDavid and Draisaitl) are world-class players, made some world-class plays, and I was a beneficiary.”
Draisaitl scored 57 seconds into the third period to tie the game 2-2. He swatted the puck in off Hill’s pad from below the goal line after Evan Bouchard‘s initial one-timer fluttered over the glove of the reaching goaltender.
“We stuck with our game plan and found a way,” Perry said. “We came here to win hockey games and we found a way tonight.”
NOTES: Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was a late scratch due to an illness. He was replaced by Kaedan Korczak, who had one shot in 13:04 of ice time in his first career Stanley Cup Playoff game.
