LAS VEGAS — In the three months Mark Stone was out of the lineup, the Golden Knights not solely missed his playmaking potential, Vegas additionally didn’t have his boisterous objective celebrations that fired up the workforce and the house crowd.

His potential to alter a recreation with a well timed move or objective returned Thursday night time. And with it, Stone introduced his again his fist-pumping celebrations in a recreation the Knights badly wanted.

In simply his second recreation since coming back from again surgical procedure, Stone scored two third-period targets and assisted on one other to present Vegas a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 2 to even the first-round sequence.

“The big-time players come up in the right moments, and that’s exactly what he did,” Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo stated. “I’ve played with a lot of good players, but there are not many people that can do what he does on both ends of the ice. When you play with him a long time, you really appreciate the things that he does night in and night out, and he’s one hell of a leader.”

Chandler Stephenson and William Karlsson every had a objective and an help, Jack Eichel scored his first profession playoff objective and Phil Kessel and Pietrangelo every had two assists. Laurent Brossoit made 31 saves.

Stone’s targets had been his first since January. He underwent again surgical procedure Jan. 31 and returned in time for this sequence.

PHOTOS: Stone scores twice to carry Golden Knights previous Jets 5-2

“I don’t want to miss this,” Stone stated. “When I got traded (from Ottawa in 2019), this is the team I want to play for, the team I want to win with, the team I want to go to war with. So just to be back in here means the world to me.”

Adam Lowry and Kevin Stenlund every scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck made 34 stops.

Game 3 is Saturday afternoon at Winnipeg.

“They were the better team tonight,” Jets coach Rick Bowness stated. “They deserved to win that game, there’s no question. Did we make it too easy on them? Yeah, we did. That’s the most disappointing thing is the execution and then the goals that we gave up the way we gave them up. That’s disappointing, but we’ll fix it. We’ll get ready for Saturday.”

Lowry scored on an influence play at 9:18 of the primary interval, redirecting Neal Pionk’s shot from the purpose to present Winnipeg a 1-0 lead. It was his third objective in a row. He ended the sequence opener, a 5-1 Jets victory, with a power-play objective and empty-netter within the closing 1:21.

The Jets dominated the primary interval by outshooting Vegas 17-8, and tensions had been excessive with three fights breaking out and 18 minutes of penalties handed out.

“In the first period, we weren’t on our game at all,” Knights coach Bruce Cassidy stated. “I think some of our veteran players pulled us into the fight, and we had an honest conversation after the first period about that.”

The Knights got here out stronger within the second interval and took their first lead of the sequence on Karlsson’s shot from the slot and Eichel’s redirect from 21 ft away.

Winnipeg evened the sport at 2 on Stenlund’s objective off a 2-on-1 breakaway with 3:59 left.

The Knights broke open the sport with three third-period targets.

BLOODIED BUT NOT BOWED

The first two video games haven't simple from a bodily standpoint for the Jets.

Morgan Barron took a skate to his face in Game 1 dangerously near his proper eye that required greater than 75 stitches. Then on Thursday, Hellebuyck took a shot to the helmet off Eichel’s stick that put bloodied his face close to his left eye.

It was a fairly a sequence for Hellebuyck, who moments earlier made a lunging glove save off a power-play shot from Stephenson. He someway stored the puck in entrance of the objective line to maintain the Knights off the scoreboard.

PERSONNEL MOVES

Jets ahead Nikolaj Ehlers (upper-body damage) remained out. Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness has been calling Ehlers everyday. Ehlers final performed April 11 at Minnesota, however stated earlier than this sequence he felt able to go.

Adin Hill was the Knights’ backup goalie instead of Jonathan Quick, who entered the playoffs at No. 2. Hill was 16-7-1 with a 2.50 goals-against common and a .915 save proportion, however hasn’t performed since March 7 due to a lower-body damage.

Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb went to the locker room halfway by way of the third interval after delivering a giant examine into the boards.

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