Jonathan Marchessault and Max Pacioretty scored 45 seconds apart late in the third period to lift the Vegas Golden Knights to a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 of their second-round NHL playoff series.
Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer had on Thursday said that one goal could get a raucous home crowd involved and make the difference in a playoff game.
His words rang true on game night.
Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY
Marchessault’s goal ignited an announced sold-out crowd of 17,504, which helped breathe life into the Golden Knights, who lost the first two games in Denver.
Vegas cut Colorado’s series lead to 2-1.
Game 4 in Las Vegas is to begin tomorrow morning Taiwan time.
Photo: AFP
“The crowd was so awesome, the full building was so great, it was so nice to be back in that type of atmosphere again,” DeBoer said. “They were huge in the third period for us, sticking with us and keeping the energy levels up. It was awesome. It was nice to be back at home with a full house.”
William Karlsson also scored for Vegas, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 18 shots, including two point-blank saves inside the final two minutes to preserve the win.
With Vegas trailing 2-1, Marchessault whiffed on a shot, but stayed with the puck and, from behind his own net, banked the puck off the back of Colorado goaltender Philipp Grubauer to tie it with 5 minutes, 18 seconds left in the game.
Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY
Less than a minute later, Pacioretty deflected defenseman Nick Holden’s shot from the point past Grubauer for the go-ahead goal.
“It’s tough to believe when you miss so many chances, but with Marchy breaking the ice, it really got us going,” Pacioretty said. “So when that floater comes in from Holdy, you just have a little more confidence that you’re going to tip it and that’s how it played out.”
Carl Soderberg and Mikko Rantanen scored for Colorado. Grubauer, who dropped to 6-1 this post-season, made 39 saves.
He had won his previous 10 playoff decisions dating to last season.
“Maybe we stepped back too much in the third,” Soderberg said. “We gave them a lot of opportunities. We were almost there.”
In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Carey Price made 30 saves for his eighth career playoff shutout as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Winnipeg Jets 1-0 to take a 2-0 lead in their second-round playoff series.
Tyler Toffoli scored a short-handed goal 1 minute, 41 seconds into the second period.
“We’re playing well on both sides of the puck,” Price said. “We’re just making smart decisions and backing each other up all over the ice.”
Game 3 is to be played in Montreal tomorrow morning Taiwan time.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier