There is zero discussion required about the impact made by Mark Stone and Cale Makar when they are on the ice.
Stone has been the heartbeat of the Vegas Golden Knights for a good while now, emerging as one their most reliable forwards that can be played in any situation asked of him. Makar, on the other hand, has blossomed as a perennial Norris Trophy candidate for the Colorado Avalanche, consistently opening opportunities for his teammates while providing a steady presence in his own zone. With both players making their Western Conference Final debuts, the opposing teams were able to get a look at how their rival performed with a full deck at their disposal.
“I don’t like watching ever. I want to play every game and it’s been an unfortunate part of my career is sitting out,” said Stone during his postgame press conference.
“This time of year, it definitely is harder, but when the guys are playing the way they’re playing, it makes it a little easier. I come to the rink with a smile on my face every day and helps when you’re winning and it’s great to be around the guys and it’s great to be back on the bench.”
It took some time for the Golden Knights to get going, but Stone would serve as the catalyst to push his team to a 5-3 comeback victory over the Avalanche in Game Three on Sunday, putting themselves one win away from their third Stanley Cup Final in nine years.
The Golden Knights got off to a slow start as the Avalanche used their desperation to prove why they won the President’s Trophy this season. Devon Toews would get a burst of speed to beat Noah Hanifin to the puck, getting a shot that ricocheted off of Carter Hart and directly onto Gabriel Landeskog’s stick to get the scoring started with a tap-in goal.
It would only become a more difficult mountain to climb for the Golden Knights with Josh Manson and Martin Necas executing a pair of brilliant passes to find Nazem Kadri with a shooting lane, and the veteran forward would double the Colorado lead.
Heartbreak would continue to define the first period for the Golden Knights, as Pavel Dorofeyev would be denied a power play goal due to the referees declaring that he knocked the puck in with his hand. Shortly after, Jack Drury would get a clean shorthanded breakaway and deke out Hart to make it a three-goal deficit.
“Quite honestly, in the first period, we had some chances,” said Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella about a challenging first 20 minutes for his group.
“You could see early on just some crazy stuff happened, like a shorthanded goal, but we had some chances. I thought their goalie made some key saves. They’re not going away.”
Needing any sort of spark in the second period, Stone would deliver.
Starting the middle frame on a shortened power play, the Golden Knights would set themselves up in the offensive zone early. Just 19 seconds in, Mitch Marner would find the captain on an excellent feed that allowed Stone to score from the backdoor to cut the Avalanche lead back down to two.
Marner’s assist on the play also counts as his 20th of the playoffs, extending his league lead.
“We get that power play chance and we go down and score, which is huge,” said Marner about the sequence. Great play by [Pavel Dorofeyev] to find [Tomas Hertl], and then [Hertl]’s great play to me, and was lucky enough to find [Stone] going backdoor, and from that point on, we just started rolling the confidence a little bit.”
It would be another longtime Golden Knight providing the energy next. With Kaedan Korczak forcing a turnover in the offensive zone, the loose puck was quickly pounced on by William Karlsson, who took a quick shot that surprised Scott Wedgewood to score his first goal of the postseason.
“Very good,” Karlsson said about finally getting on the board this postseason. “It’s been a long time, so it felt very good.”
With the energy levels continuing to rise throughout T-Mobile Arena, it was only a matter until the home team turned it into pandemonium.
Breaking out from the defensive zone, the Golden Knights got a quick play going at the other end of the ice. Keegan Kolesar would shake off a missed interference call on Manson to get himself in front of the net, ultimately getting perfect position to poke in a puck left behind from Dylan Coghlan’s shot to flip the script and tie the game at three goals apiece.
To make matters worse for the Avalanche, Nathan MacKinnon would block a shot from Shea Theodore with his knee and went down on the ice in considerable pain. He would attempt to play through the pain, but would go down to the Colorado trainer’s room before the end of the period. MacKinnon would return later in the third period, but did look somewhat slowed by the effects of the block.
With the momentum firmly in their corner, the third period would be equally matched, although Cole Smith would take a hit from Brent Burns and head back to the Vegas bench favoring his left arm.
Shortly after, Tomas Hertl would deliver his shining moment of the postseason. Getting out in space, the Czech forward deked around Colorado defenseman Sam Malinski to get the space needed to beat Wedgewood on the backhand, giving Vegas their first lead of the game with less than eight and a half minutes to go.
“I actually thought [Korczak] was going to sling it to him, but it was a great play by him to get it to me,” said Stone when he dissected Hertl’s go-ahead goal. “I could see him coming up the wing. He was flying, so I gave him the little bump. I actually didn’t see the goal; I was changing. Once I got to the bench, the bench went crazy, so I got to see it on replay. It was a great play and it felt good.”
The Golden Knights would survive a late push from the Avalanche, culminating with Brett Howden tying Dorofeyev atop the NHL’s goal-scoring rank with his 10th on the empty net bid.
Hart earned plenty of praise for his own performance, shutting the Avalanche down after allowing the three goals in the first period to finish with 32 saves.
What was once considered improbable is now possible, as the Golden Knights have the chance to sweep the Avalanche and punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday in Game Four.
“We can’t get too carried away,” said Tortorella. “It’s a very important win for us and how we won it, it’s very exciting for them. I trust that they’re going to come to work tomorrow at 11 o’clock. We will look at tape and start again for Game Four.”