Vegas captain plays 6 shifts in 1st period, does not return
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EDMONTON — The Vegas Golden Knights pulled out a massive 4-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round without captain Mark Stone for two periods Saturday.
Stone left after sustaining an upper-body injury in the first period and is day to day according to Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy. Game 4 of the best-of-7 series, which Edmonton leads 2-1, is here on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).
“We’ll see tomorrow how he’s feeling,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Obviously he didn’t return, but it doesn’t preclude him from playing the next game, we’ll know more tomorrow.”
The Vegas forward had six shifts in the first period for 5:54 of total ice time. He did not have a point and was minus-1.
Stone’s final shift of the period lasted 34 seconds and concluded at 13:40. The Golden Knights captain has eight points (four goals, four assists) in nine playoff games. He had four points (two goals, two assists) in the first two games of the series against Edmonton.
“We managed quite well it seemed, the guys wanted to pick him up,” Cassidy said. “What it does, it allows other players like a Reilly Smith to get more opportunity. He got more opportunity to play and he took advantage of it.”
Despite his absence, Vegas was able to battle back from a 2-0 deficit with goals from Nicolas Roy and Smith 54 seconds apart at 15:17 and 16:11 of the first period. William Karlsson gave the Golden Knights the lead at 17:05 of the second period and Smith scored the winning goal at 19:59 of the third with 0.4 seconds left on the clock.
“You can’t replace a guy like Mark Stone, so the best you can do, by committee, is try to chip in and make up for not having him on the ice,” Smith said. “He’s a great player and he’s also a great leader in the locker room, so everyone just has to do a little bit more and I think that was our mindset for the rest of the game and we’ll see what happens for the rest of the series.”
It was unclear at what point in the first period Stone sustained his injury. On his third shift of the game Stone fell in front of Oilers forward Corey Perry, who seemed to make contact with his left wrist skating by. Stone did return to play three more shifts before leaving the game.
“You never want to see anyone have to leave the game, especially a guy like him who leads us on the ice and in the room, emotionally,” Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague said. “I know it’s definitely tough on him and tough on us too as a group. That’s definitely in the back of our heads when we’re out there. He wants to be out there more than anyone battling with us and it makes a win feel that much better that we were able to get one for him there.”
