The Jets are focused on being at their best in Game Five against Vegas, and are drawing on past experiences in order to do it. Read More
Marc-Andre Fleury is an expert on the difficulty of closing out a playoff series.
The Vegas Golden Knights goaltender has the experience to know, with his three Stanley Cup rings and 129 career NHL playoff games.
Up three games to one on the Winnipeg Jets in the NHL's Western Conference final, the expansion Golden Knights are a win away from advancing to the Stanley Cup final thanks in large part to Fleury's work this series.
Las Vegas has a chance to finish the Jets off in Sunday afternoon's Game 5 in Winnipeg.
"The last one is always the toughest to get," Fleury said after his 35 saves in a 3-2 win over the Jets on Friday.
Vegas edges Winnipeg 3-2, leads series 3-2. Expansion team 1 win away from advancing to Stanley Cup final. 1:49
No modern-day expansion team has reached the Stanley Cup final.
The St. Louis Blues were among six teams that joined the NHL in 1967 — doubling the league to a dozen teams — when they were swept in the final by the Montreal Canadiens.
After his 33 saves in a 4-2 Game 3 win, the 34-year-old Fleury from Sorel, Que., again fended off a late Jets push when Winnipeg outshot the hosts 12-2 in the first half of the third period.
Series far from over
"Flower's done a great job, making big saves time and time again," Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith said. "He's also pretty calm in there which settles us down."
Smith scored the winner at 13:02 of the third, when Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien whiffed on a bouncing puck attempting a shot from the point.
Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury dives to stop Winnipeg's Patrik Laine from scoring during Game 4 Friday night in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Smith stole the puck and stayed a step ahead of defenders Brandon Tanev and Josh Morrissey coming back. The Toronto native got a knuckler away that beat Connor Hellebuyck over the Winnipeg goalie's shoulder.
"I was just trying to get as much ice as I could before the other defencemen closed in," Smith said. "I pretty much just buried my head and put it on net."
William Karlsson and Tomas Nosek also scored for the Golden Knights at a raucous T-Mobile Arena.
Patrick Laine and Tyler Myers countered for the Jets, who lost their third in a row this series.
"In our minds, this series is far from over," Myers said.
'Gotta move on'
Hellebuyck stopped 26 of 29 shots in the loss.
"This is a heartbreaker but we gotta move on," the Jets goalie said. "We now have everything on the line."
A Game 6, if necessary, would be back in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Vegas improved to 9-1 this post-season when scoring the first goal of the game. The Jets are 7-1, but chased the Golden Knights a third straight game after giving up a first-period goal.
Jonathan Marchessault scored 35 seconds into Game 3 and it was the left-winger from Cap-Rouge, Que., who set up the first goal less than three minutes after puck drop Friday.
Myers beat Fleury between the pads at 5:36 of the third period to pull the visitors even at 2-2,
Also like Game 3, Winnipeg tied the game in the second period only for the Knights to score less than a minute later and re-take the lead.
Tomas Nosek celebrates his second-period goal in the Knights' 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday. (Harry How/Getty Images)
"All series long we've been doing it," Fleury said. "I feel like Winnipeg's a team that feeds off that momentum when they get a goal. They get a goal, but we go at them right back. We've been scoring big goals after that."
When Hellebuyck bobbled a rebound in the second, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scooped up the puck and attempted a wraparound goal. Nosek shoved the puck between Hellebuyck's legs to make it 2-1 at 10:12.
Laine scored a power-play goal at 9:29 to pull the Jets even. He one-timed a shot from the face-off circle under Fleury's arm.
With Myers serving an interference penalty, Karlsson beat Hellebuyck low glove side on a cross-ice feed from Marchessaault at 2:25.
A Game 7 would be May 24 in Winnipeg.
The Vegas Golden Knights are a win away from advancing to the Stanley Cup final.
The expansion Golden Knights downed the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 on Friday to lead the NHL’s Western Conference final three games to one.
The series returns to Winnipeg for Sunday’s Game 5. A Game 6, if necessary, would be back in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Reilly Smith scored the third-period winner with William Karlsson and Tomas Nosek also contributing goals for the hosts at a raucous T-Mobile Arena.
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was a difference-maker again with 35 stops after a 33-save performance in Game 3.
READ MORE: Golden Knights grab lead in NHL Western Conference final with 4-2 win over Jets
Patrick Laine and Tyler Myers countered for the Jets, who lost their third in a row this series. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 26 of 29 shots in the loss.
No modern-day expansion team has played in the Stanley Cup final. The St. Louis Blues were among six teams joining the NHL in 1967 when that team reached the final and was swept by the Montreal Canadiens.
Las Vegas improved to 9-1 this post-season when scoring the first goal of the game. The Jets are 7-1, but were chasing the Knights a third straight game after giving up a first-period goal.
Jonathan Marchessault scored 35 seconds into Game 3 and it was the left-winger from Cap-Rouge, Que., who set up the first goal less than three minutes after puck drop Friday for his 18th post-season point.
Reilly stole the puck from Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien whiffing on a shot from the point in the third period.
Reilly outskated Winnipeg defenders Brandon Taven and Josh Morrissey coming back and beat Hellebuyck with a knuckler over the goalie’s left shoulder at 13:02.
The Jets were buzzing in the third outshooting the hosts 12-2 in the first 10 minutes. Myers beat Fleury between the pads at 5:36 to pull the visitors even again.
READ MORE: ‘It’s going to be a Winnipeg Whiteout in Vegas land:’ Jets fans on Game 4
But also like Game 3, Winnipeg tied the game in the second period only for the Knights to re-take the lead less than a minute later.
When Hellebuyck bobbled a rebound in the second, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scooped up the puck and attempted a wraparound goal. Nosek shoved the puck between Hellebuyck’s legs to make it 2-1 at 10:12.
READ MORE: Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice likes goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s swagger
Laine scored a power-play goal at 9:29 to pull the Jets even. He one-timed a shot from the faceoff circle under Fleury’s right arm.
With Myers serving an interference penalty Karlsson beat Hellebuyck low glove side on a cross-ice feed from Marchessaault at 2:25.
A Game 7 would be May 24 in Winnipeg.
Notes: A moment of silence was held prior to the game for Santa Fe High School in Texas, where 10 people were killed Friday by a gunman . . . Golden Knights forward David Perron played Friday after sitting out two games with illness. Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers also returned to the lineup after sitting out Game 3 with illness.
LAS VEGAS — It was the whiff felt all the way back in Winnipeg.
That big Dustin Byfuglien windup, the expectation of a rocket off the Jets defenceman’s stick – and then, nothing but a Golden Knight going the other way.
Reilly Smith was the one who picked up the slapshot that never was with six minutes and change left in Game 4, the score deadlocked at 2-2.
Smith beat Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, and now Vegas, up three games to one, can wrap it up back in Winnipeg in Game 5.
“It’s just a bounce,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler lamented of the goal that put his team’s back to the wall in this best-of-seven. “That puck’s a funny shape, the ice is chippy, third period. Just takes a crazy hop. They’re opportunistic over there.
“We win that game nine times out of 10. Tonight was the one.”
Friday’s 3-2 Golden Knights win was in many ways a mirror-image of the previous game, complete with a Vegas quick-answer goal off a mistake by Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck and a dominant third period by the Jets.
And the loss, of course.
That’s three straight in this series, something the Jets never did even once in regulation for the entire regular season.
Talk about an inopportune time to break new ground.
“Our mindset all year has been just take care of the next game,” Wheeler said. “We’re disappointed leaving here. But it’s not a best-of-five series.”
This won’t be easy to rebound from.
The Jets played two games they probably feel they could have won. And left with nothing.
“I don’t know if I want to call it luck,” Hellebuyck said, mentioning the goal posts he’s watched his shooters hit. “But things have got to switch and it’s going to come our way.”
I guess the house always wins in this town.
“It’s virtually impossible to generate more offence,” Wheeler said. “On the road against a team that had 110 points and we get 40 shots … you can’t generate any more than that. You just stay with what you do.
“We play that game again and it doesn’t go our way, it’s not meant to be.”
Down 2-1 going into the third, they came up with one of those dominant stretches we’ve come to expect every so often.
Cycling, grinding and throwing the puck around like the Harlem Globetrotters of hockey, they set up camp in the Vegas zone and didn’t leave for more than a minute.
They made good use of the time, finally, lighting a fire – Tyler Myers scoring the goal that made it 2-2.
The Jets at one point held a 12-2 edge in shots.
But Vegas only needed two more to regain the lead.
And Marc-Andre Fleury continued a run on the Vegas Strip that rivals any other show in this entertainment-crazed town.
Stopping 36 of 38 shots, several of the unconsciously-good variety, the Flower is experiencing quite the late-career bloom – and the Jets hopes of advancing to the Stanley Cup final have all but wilted in the Nevada desert because of it.
Wheeler’s response to a question about Fleury being in the process of stealing the series was telling.
“It’s a bad look to answer that question honestly,” Wheeler said. “They’ve got good players and they’re making us pay when we’ve made mistakes. And obviously their goaltender’s made some huge stops, too. I chalk that up to a good team cashing in on our mistakes.”
There is another story to this series, though.
The numbers 88, 12 and 43 have played a big role.
That’s not a hotline for Vegas or a cold one for the Jets.
It’s the number of seconds it took the Golden Knights to answer a Jets goal in Games 2, 3 and 4, respectively, all wins by Vegas.
Those are not only puzzling, but also inexcusable, lapses.
In Game 2 in Winnipeg, the Jets had just pulled to within a goal, at 2-1, early in the third period, when Vegas scored the back-breaker 88 seconds later, on their way to a 4-2 win.
Game 3, the Jets tied it at 1-1 in the second, only to give up the lead again just a dozen tics later, en route to a 3-1 victory.
Friday night, another killer goal from the home side, just 43 seconds after Winnipeg tied it at a goal apiece, midway through the second.
What’s the old saying – a second such incident might be considered a fluke, but a third one signals a trend?
You might argue it’s an uncanny ability by the Knights, but they had plenty of help.
On the last two, it was Hellebuyck with the assist.
In Game 3 he had his pass picked off behind his net, leading to an easy goal.
Friday, he inexplicably let an easy shot by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare escape his catching mitt, handing the puck right back to the Vegas forward who fed Tomas Nosek in front.
Two games, two gifts by the Jets netminder, who’s starting to show a crack in that steely exterior.
Hellebuyck can claim he likes his game better than that of Fleury all he wants – as he did following Game 3.
He’s the only one.
“I’ve liked it all series long,” he said, Friday. “Obviously it’s got to be a little better because we’ve got to win – that’s the bottom line.”
He nailed that one.
pfriesen@postmedia.com
Twitter: @friesensunmedia
