Stone leaves with upper-body injury in 1st period for Vegas, which cuts series deficit to 2-1
Golden Knights at Oilers | Recap | Round 2, Game 3
EDMONTON — Reilly Smith scored his second goal of the game in the final second of the third period to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 4-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of their Western Conference Second Round series at Rogers Place on Saturday.
Smith faked a shot to deke around a sliding Darnell Nurse in the slot before going wide around Stuart Skinner and throwing a shot across the crease from a tight angle below the left circle. The puck went in off Leon Draisaitl’s stick as he attempted to cover the open net with 0.4 seconds on the clock.
“Honestly, I’ve seen (William Karlsson) use that play a few times were he forechecks and spins it out in front of the net. Jumping out from the bench, I think there was about seven seconds and I just tried to get there as fast as possible,” Smith said. “’Karl’ does a good job of hunting pucks and being the first on it and once it popped out, I saw a lot of guys sell out, so I just hoped I had enough time to kind of pump fake and find a line and it worked out.
“I think if I try to shoot that, it’s getting stopped if not by the first guy or the second guy or the goalie. Sometimes you just hope for the best and that one seemed to work out, thankfully I had enough time.”
Too much time, if you’re the Oilers.
“We didn’t sort it out very well, to let the puck get into the slot,” Draisaitl said. “After that, it’s just unlucky. It’s unfortunate. It goes off my stick.
“I’m just trying to keep it out of the net, obviously. It’s just a bad bounce.”
VGK@EDM, Gm3: Smith nets his second with less than :01 left in the 3rd
Karlsson had a goal and an assist, and Adin Hill made 17 saves for the Golden Knights, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division. Captain Mark Stone left the game with an upper-body injury with 6:20 remaining in the first period and did not return.
“It’s obviously terrible. You never want to see anybody have to leave a game, especially a guy like him, who leads us on the ice and in the room emotionally,” Golden Knights defenseman Nicolas Hague said. “I know it’s really tough on him and tough on us as a group. But that’s definitely in the back of our heads too when we’re out there, he wants to be out there more than anyone battling with us. And it makes the win feel that much better.”
Corey Perry scored twice, Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist, and Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard each had two assists for the Oilers, the No. 3 seed from the Pacific. Skinner made 20 saves.
The Oilers lead the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 is here Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).
“The game-winning goal, we’re in good position,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Really, it’s a 1-on-3, he dumps the puck in, they retrieve it. We’re playing a little desperate to try and block a shot. They make a play and unfortunately that’s the end of it.
“Everyone on the ice is in desperation mode, selling out to make that last save. Unfortunately, there was an extra 0.4 seconds on the clock to make that play happen.”
Perry gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 7:19 of the first period, taking a centering pass in the slot from McDavid off the rush and sending a wrist shot past Hill’s blocker.
VGK@EDM, Gm3: Perry buries McDavid’s feed to get things started in the 1st period
He then made it 2-0 on the power play at 12:12, tipping Bouchard’s wrist shot from the point past Hill. It was Edmonton’s first power-play goal of the series on its sixth attempt.
Nicolas Roy cut it to 2-1 at 15:17 when he chipped in a rebound at the left post after Skinner knocked down Hague’s shot from the left point.
Smith tied it 2-2 just 54 seconds later. He split between Viktor Arvidsson and Vasily Podkolzin in the left circle and went forehand to backhand to slip the puck between Skinner’s pads.
Karlsson gave Vegas a 3-2 lead at 17:05 of the second period, finishing a give-and-go with Noah Hanifin with a one-timer from the right circle.
McDavid tied it 3-3 at 16:58 of the third period, banking a sharp-angle shot in off the skate of Brayden McNabb.
NOTES: Smith tied Nazem Kadri (2020) and Jussi Jokinen (2009) for the latest go-ahead goal in Stanley Cup Playoffs history … The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs mark the eighth postseason with no sweeps through the first two rounds since the expansion era (1967-68). … Perry (39 years, 359 days) became the third-oldest player in Stanley Cup Playoffs history with a multigoal period, joining Nicklas Lidstrom (41 years, eight days in 2011) and Teemu Selanne (40 years, 288 days in 2011).
