Theodore's OT winner helps Knights even series with Mammoth

SALT LAKE CITY — It figured we were due for a wild affair in this opening-round Stanley Cup Playoff series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth.

Oh boy, did we get a wild one Monday at the Delta Center.

A 3-0 Vegas lead. Utah answering with four straight goals and a third-period lead. Brett Howden with his second of the game to tie it just past the midway point of the final period. Then in overtime, a goal was disallowed for offsides which would’ve given the Knights the win and made a hero out of Pavel Dorofeyev, who has been struggling mightily heading into Game 4.

But with the clock winding down under a minute, Shea Theodore, an original Golden Misfit and one of the many veterans and whose name is etched on the Stanley Cup from 2023, came through, beating Karel Vejmelka with 51 seconds left to give the Knights a 5-4 win and pull them even in the series with the Mammoth, 2-2.

With the series now all square and Game 5 at 7 p.m. Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena, the Knights may have regained the upper hand. It’s now a best-of-three series with two of the three in Las Vegas.

“We found a way,” Knights coach John Tortorella said. “We started really well. Lost ourselves a little bit. The momentum swung to their side a little. But we hung in there.

“The guys knew it was an important game to keep the series in a good frame for us. Everybody contributed. I’m happy for the guys. They stayed with it.”

But it wasn’t easy. The Knights had to rely on all their experience, all their grit and get a little puck luck to get the desired result.

Tortorella did change things up. Some of the moves worked, like putting Dorofeyev on the top line with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev. Dorofeyev scored 1:12 into Game 4, finally getting something to go right for him.

He got some excellent penalty killing, including a shorthanded goal from Howden late in the first period.

But not everything Tortorella tried worked. The power play still struggled, going 0 for 4. He still hit the blender with his lines as the game progressed, moving Mark Stone around, including on the top line while leaning on his fourth line of Nic Dowd, Cole Smith and Colton Sissons.

“It’s a good feeling to know you’re trusted,” said Smith, who scored Vegas’ third goal to give the Knights a 3-0 second-period lead. “Anytime you get more ice time, you take it.”

However, in the end, the Knights’ experience factored in as they held off a stern Utah challenge. The Mammoth had cut the deficit to 3-2 on goals 28 seconds apart from Nick Schmaltz and Ian Cole and had the Knights on their collective heels for a while.

“They took it to us for a bit there,” said Howden, whose second of the evening helped quiet the sellout crowd of 12,478. “But we stayed with it and I thought in overtime we got better and eventually we found a way.”

Theodore said you have to gut it out in OT when you’re dealing with a long change to your bench and sometimes your shift gets extended. And when you have the puck on your stick with a chance to end it and you do, it’s an exhilarating feeling.

“It’s great,” Theodore said. “You really don’t want to go to a second (OT). It’s just a really good feeling. Scoring an OT winner is pretty special.”

Ultimately, the objective was achieved, that being to win a game in Salt Lake City and get this series back to even. How it happened, Tortorella doesn’t really care.

“To get scored on twice and trail in the third period and come back and win, it’s something we can lean on going forward,” he said. “It was a good game. It was a good hockey game. I thought we won it the first time and I was in the coaches’ room celebrating and they yelled back out ‘they’re not sure’ so that was a little bit weird for me.

“I’m happy for the guys. They put in the work. They prepared really well. So we evened it up and we keep on going.”