Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP
Vegas Golden Knights’ Alec Martinez (23) and William Karlsson (71) celebrate a goal against the Chicago Blackhawks during the second period in Game 5 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, in Edmonton, Alberta.
Published Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020 | 10:08 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020 | 11:50 p.m.
For five games, the Golden Knights were the better team every time they stepped on the ice.
The Chicago Blackhawks didn’t go down without a fight. They even snuck in a victory to avoid a sweep. But they could only delay the inevitable for so long, as the Golden Knights had too much talent for the 12th-seeded team in the West.
Vegas beat the Blackhawks 4-3 in Game 5, ending the first-round series in five games. The Golden Knights played keep away from Chicago with the puck, not just in Game 5, but the whole series, and made sure Tuesday was the last time they would square off.
“When you can eliminate a team, you have to take advantage of that,” forward Mark Stone said. “Some guys have never been in the playoffs, never won a playoff series. It’s tough. No matter who you’re playing, it’s hard.”
At 5-on-5 in the series, the Golden Knights looked like they were on the power play. For almost 260 minutes across four games, Vegas out-attempted the Blackhawks 305-202, had the edge in high-danger scoring chances 62-32, had 66% of the expected goals and outscored them 13-8, according to Natural Stat Trick. It was a mugging, showing the talent disparity between the conference’s 1 and 12 seeds.
Still, the Blackhawks made it closer than the numbers suggest it should have been. Three of the five games were decided by one goal, and one of two that wasn’t was a Chicago victory that used an empty-netter to escape the one-goal margin.
“I’ve been following what everyone is saying with this series, and people are wildly underestimating the Blackhawks,” goalie Robin Lehner said. “Look at the pedigree of that team and the players that they have. There’s some world-class players.”
Game 5 was another decided by one goal, coming down to the final seconds. Chicago jumped out a 2-0 lead in the first period, bearing a resemblance to the Game 4 lead that held up through the end. Just like that game, the Golden Knights answered quickly, as Max Pacioretty introduced himself to the series with a put-back snap. It came with 31 seconds left in the first, his first goal of the postseason.
Pacioretty was late to arrive in the Edmonton bubble dealing with an injury. Even when he arrived he didn’t look himself, powering through Game 1 but missing the next game. He took a few games to get his feet underneath him, but looked like his regular season self on Tuesday, assisting on Stone’s game-tying goal 57 seconds into the second.
“It was obviously the best I’ve felt since I came back,” Pacioretty said. “I know I had some work to do after my first three (games) definitely weren’t the best of my career.”
Then one of Chicago’s world-class players showed his team wasn’t going to lie down. The Blackhawks capitalized on a turnover, and Patrick Kane went in all alone on Lehner, showing off nifty stickwork to slide the puck in five-hole and put the Blackhawks back up by a goal. It was the second time in five games Chicago managed three goals against a Vegas goalie.
That was the last goal Chicago would score this season, and their final lead of the year lasted 3:26 before Alec Martinez’s power-play blast retied the game, Vegas’ first power-play goal in 10 tries this series.
The 3-3 score held into the third, but not for long. Coach Peter DeBoer called forward Alex Tuch the “X-factor” before the series began, a title repeated by Pacioretty in a playful tease during the postgame news conference. Tuch was on that podium because he scored the game-winning goal 1:34 into the third, driving to the net and picking up his own rebound.
It was Tuch’s fourth goal of the postseason, tying him with Stone and Shea Theodore for the team lead. He had eight all regular season.
“He’s impossible to stop when he has that attitude, that attack attitude, that he’s had I think the entire series,” DeBoer said. “He was dangerous the entire series. Every time he touched the ice, I thought he was a handful for them to contain.”
That was all Vegas needed. Lehner turned away the final 13 shots of the game to defeat his old team. Acquired by Vegas at the trade deadline in February, Lehner took extra time in the traditional handshake line with his old teammates, particularly goalie Corey Crawford.
Lehner became the second goalie in NHL history and first since 1927 to win a playoff series against a team he played for earlier that season.
“It felt really nice for me to be able to close this out because it’s a bit weird playing your old teams, especially that group,” Lehner said. “All but love for that organization, but a huge win for us. I thought it was a really good series for us to move forward.”
Move on they will, the first team to advance to the second round this postseason. The Golden Knights will have to wait until at least Friday to learn its second-round opponent as the remaining series wrap up, and until next week to play again. The tentative start date for the second round is Aug. 25.
That gives the Golden Knights time to rest, enjoy some well-deserved time off before getting back to the grind on the road to the Stanley Cup. Players have been in and out the lineup this series, and Vegas will take not having to play a Game 6 or 7.
“The overall win is huge for our group,” Tuch said. “Not having to go back and play another game I think gives us a lot of time to rest and recover and get ready for our next opponent.”
Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at twitter.com/@j15emerson.
