Vegas Golden Knights Erase Deficit in 45 Seconds, Win Game Three

A packed house at T-Mobile Arena witnessed one of the fastest momentum shifts of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Vegas Golden Knights scored twice in 45 seconds for a 3-2 win in Game Three of the Honda West Division final.

The Colorado Avalanche still leads the series two games to one.

Trailing 2-1 in the third period, Jonathan Marchessault banked a puck in off the back of Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer to tie the game. Just 45 seconds later Max Pacioretty tipped a puck through the legs of Grubauer to give the Golden Knights a lead they would not relinquish and the team’s first win in the best-of-seven series.

Marc-Andre Fleury was once again solid, yielding just two goals on 20 shots. Grubauer was pelted with 43 shots from the Golden Knights and finished with 40 saves.

The Takeaways:

• Marc-Andre Fleury didn’t have a ton of work, but he was able to make some huge saves in the third period. The AValanche may not have had the number of chances the Golden Knights did, but they had quality. Fleury gave the VGK the saves they needed when they needed them, especially late.
• Max Pacioretty now has a four-game point streak in progress and his goal was the game-winner for Vegas tonight, tipping home a Nick Holden point shot and lighting the crowd on fire.
• The Vegas Golden Knights look better as the series goes on, and they’ll need to. The Avs are still a scary team and were it not for Fleury could have tied the game late.
• T-Mobile Arena was sold out – 17,504 – and they were rewarded with a tremendous playoff game. It’s the first full crowd since March of 2020.
• The loss was the Avs and Grubauer’s first of the playoffs.
• Vegas kept Nathan MacKinnon off the scoresheet and saddled him with a minus-1 rating.