LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Golden Knights saved their greatest efficiency of the opening spherical for final and dominated the Winnipeg Jets with their first probability in an elimination recreation.
Chandler Stephenson scored twice and Vegas ousted the Jets from their Western Conference opening-round sequence with a 4-1 victory on Thursday evening in Game 5.
“I think it was our best, or closest to complete, but like I said, we still have work to do and we know that,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy stated. “Nobody plays their best game in the first round. You keep building, and we’ll do the same.”
The Golden Knights, who misplaced Game 1 earlier than successful 4 straight, grew to become the primary crew to advance to the second spherical of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Vegas, which went to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season in 2018, is now 42-29 within the postseason. Vegas improved to 8-5 in 13 playoff sequence since getting into the league.
Mark Stone added a purpose and two assists and William Karlsson additionally scored for the Golden Knights. Goaltender Laurent Brossoit made 30 saves.
PHOTOS: Knights high Winnipeg 4-1, advance to second spherical
“I thought overall it was one of our better games,” Stone stated. “I thought we stuck to the program for the majority of those last four games that we played.”
Vezina Trophy candidate Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves for the Jets and Kyle Connor scored late within the third interval to spoil Brossoit’s shutout bid.
Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness stated he was “disgusted” together with his crew’s effort, which he in comparison with a 4-9-1 run from late January by February.
“I’m so disappointed and disgusted right now, that’s my thoughts,” Bowness stated. “No pushback. It’s the same crap we saw in February. As soon as we were challenged for first place, and teams were coming after us, we had no pushback. This series we had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours it’s not even close. … They were the better team in the regular season, they were the better team in this series.”
Stephenson put Vegas on the board first simply 50 seconds into the sport when he took a feed from Stone and beat Hellebuyck earlier than he might get again to the precise facet of the crease.
Leading 1-0 after one interval, the Golden Knights opened the floodgates with three second-period objectives.
Stone, 42 seconds in, gathered a bouncing puck and ripped a wrist shot from the slot to extend Vegas’ result in 2-0.
Next, Karlsson completed Michael Amadio’s backhand move between two Jets with a one-timer from the doorstep. Karlsson now has 11 factors (3 objectives, 8 assists) in 16 profession potential series-clinching video games, essentially the most in Golden Knights franchise historical past.
Stephenson added his second purpose of the sport when he snapped a one-timer from the left circle throughout an influence play halfway by the second interval.
Teams with a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven sequence now maintain a sequence document of 300-31 (.906).
ROSTER UPDATES: Nikolaj Ehlers, Karson Kuhlman and Kyle Capobianco made their 2023 Stanley Cup Playoff debuts for the Jets on Thursday evening. Vegas was with out Shea Theodore, Phil Kessel and Brayden McNabb, as all three sat out. Meanwhile, Vegas D Ben Hutton, 30, appeared in his first profession Stanley Cup Playoff recreation.
CHAN, TO THE MAX: Stephenson recorded a number of factors in every of Vegas’ final 4 video games, becoming a member of former Golden Knight Max Pacioretty as the one gamers in franchise historical past to have a streak of 4 or extra contests.
STONE COLD: After lacking 39 video games through the common season resulting from his second again surgical procedure in lower than a 12 months, Stone made fairly a return to the lineup. The 30-year-old registered two three-point video games within the opening-round sequence. He beforehand had two video games with not less than three factors in his playoff profession.
NEXT UP: Vegas will face both Edmonton or Los Angeles within the second spherical. Edmonton leads the Kings 3-2 of their sequence. with Game 6 scheduled for Saturday. The Golden Knights cut up the season sequence towards the Kings, every crew going 2-2-0. The Oilers received the sequence towards Vegas, going 3-0-1. __
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