Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (29) stops a shot by Minnesota Wild right wing Mats Zuccarello (36) during the first period in Game 6 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Wednesday, May 26, 2021, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King)
Published Wednesday, May 26, 2021 | 2 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, May 26, 2021 | 10:55 p.m.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Golden Knights are having a hard time finishing off the Minnesota Wild.
The Golden Knights failed to score for the second time in the series in Game 6 on Wednesday, and the Wild netted three goals in the third period to send Vegas to a 3-0 defeat at Xcel Energy Center.
Now, Vegas will have one last chance to close out the first round playoff series — 6 p.m. Friday at T-Mobile Arena.
Vegas in three straight seasons has blown a 3-1 series advantage to be forced into a winner take all Game 7. They are 1-1 in those games, beating Vancouver last year.
The Wild scored 4:21 into the third, and what a goal it was.
Zach Parise started it with a well-placed chip at the neutral zone that let Kevin Fiala and Ryan Hartman dart down the wings. Cody Glass was the only Vegas defender back, so Fiala fed Hartman across the ice and Hartman fired the puck by a sprawling Marc-Andre Fleury for the first goal of the game.
And like so often in this series, the goal woke the Golden Knights up. A few shifts later they had their best chance of the game — Glass from the doorstep — but Cam Talbot came up with the sliding save to maintain Minnesota’s lead.
The Golden Knights put the puck in the net with 11:05 remaining in the third, but the officials huddled and decided Alex Tuch interfered with Talbot on Chandler Stephenson’s long-range shot. Vegas challenged that it should have counted, but a quick review upheld it.
But not for long.
The failed challenge resulted in a delay of game penalty and put the Wild on the power play, and they picked an impactful time for their first power-play goal of the series. Fiala lasered it through traffic and Xcel Energy Center exploded as the Wild led 2-0 at 9:35.
Two goals was tough enough to chase, but three was impossible. Nick Bjugstad got loose on his own in front of Fleury and back-handed home the Wild’s third goal of the game with 4:43 to play, ensuring the series would return to Vegas one more time.
Golden Knights, Wild head to third period of Game 6 tied
The second period ended with the same score the first did, but with plenty more action.
The Golden Knights and Wild combined for more scoring chance and even a fight in the middle frame, but the score of Game 6 remained 0-0 after 40 minutes at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday.
Even as the game started to open up from the first period, several of the chances failed to go on net. On one Vegas shift, William Karlsson snuck in and appeared to take everyone on the ice by surprise but hit the crossbar, and at the end of the shift Reilly Smith fired high on a 2-on-1. Two good chances, but zero shots on goal.
Then near the 13-minute mark, business started to pick up. Matt Dumba lit off Alex Tuch on an open-ice hit in the Vegas zone, and Alec Martinez didn’t like. Martinez and Dumba threw down, Dumba got the better of the scrap and hyped up the crowd on his way to the box. It got Xcel Energy Center vocally into the game for the first time in what had been a slow 30 minutes to start.
The only other game this series without a goal through two periods was Game 1, and the Wild won that one 1-0 in overtime.
Tight defensive first period has Golden Knights, Wild scoreless in Game 6
The Golden Knights have struggled in the first period this series and excelled in the second. They didn’t have an issue with the first in Game 6 on Wednesday, and will look to turn on the jets in the second.
The Golden Knights and Wild finished a low-event opening stanza in a 0-0 draw at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday. The first is the only of the three periods in which Vegas has a negative goal differential, so it seems like it just fine with that result. The Golden Knights are plus-7 in the second period this season.
The Wild didn’t have a shot on until until past the five-minute mark, at which point Vegas had only two. In the first 15 minutes the best action was Wild forward Zach Parise appearing to beat out an icing but after it was whistled, it looked like he picked up the puck to show the linesman he won the race. A nice humorous moment.
But when the most exciting play is an icing, that says all you need to know about the period. According to Natural Stat Trick, the teams combined for just five scoring chances and three high-danger (they were all Minnesota’s).
The Wild did have a flurry of action in the final minute with three shots, but no goals.
Minnesota led 9-6 in shots in the first.
Cody Glass in, Ryan Reaves out for Golden Knights vs. Wild
The Golden Knights made a surprising roster change before Game 6 against the Wild on Wednesday, inserting second-year forward Cody Glass and scratching veteran Ryan Reaves. A reason for Reaves’ scratch was not immediately available.
Glass was recalled to Vegas before Game 3 and has skated with the team but has not played. He did not appear in last year’s playoffs after finishing the season with an injury, and tonight will mark his postseason debut. The 2017 No. 6 overall pick, the first draft pick in team history, recorded 10 points in 27 games with the Golden Knights in the regular season.
Reaves was not at morning skate, though it was listed as optional. His injury status is unknown.
Defenseman Brayden McNabb was also unavailable after falling on the NHL’s “Players Unavailable Due To COVID Protocol” list. Nick Holden took his spot on the second pairing, and Nicolas Hague slotted back into the lineup on the third pair.
Marc-Andre Fleury will start for Vegas, his sixth start in six games this series.
The Golden Knights lined up as follows:
Forwards
Alex Tuch—Chandler Stephenson—Mark Stone
Jonathan Marchessault—William Karlsson—Reilly Smith
Mattias Janmark—Nicolas Roy—Cody Glass
William Carrier—Patrick Brown—Keegan Kolesar
Defensemen
Alec Martinez—Alex Pietrangelo
Nick Holden—Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague—Zach Whitecloud
Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury, Robin Lehner
Second-period success fueling Golden Knights ahead of Game 6 with Wild
In every morning skate for every team, you’ll likely hear someone mention how important a hot start is. Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer broke the mold when he joked that every time they talk about it, they lay an egg. So, he’s not going to do it anymore. But it’s a hockey truism: teams love a strong first period.
What about a strong second period, though? The first 20 have been a bugaboo for the Golden Knights, but the next 20 are where they’ve done serious damage. Vegas has a plus-7 goal differential in the second period this series, and the Golden Knights know that a first-period slog won’t bog down the rest of the game.
They’ll look for more of the same in Game 6 against the Minnesota Wild at 6 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center.
“All year as the game has gone on, we’ve gotten better and better,” forward Chandler Stephenson said. “It’s just bitten us too many times in the butt with our first-period starts, and that’s kind of the main focus tonight.”
Vegas has been outscored 5-2 in first periods, which has cost them this series. Just last game the Wild led 3-1 after a period and though Vegas was the better team the rest of the way, including a 22-1 shots-on-goal edge in the second, a two-goal disadvantage is often too much to overcome.
Often, but not always. The Wild also had a two-goal lead after the first period of Game 3, and the Golden Knights knocked their doors down with three in the second on the way to a 5-2 win.
One theory for the second-period success could be the long change that happens in the second period. Teams switch ends for each period, meaning in the middle frame a team’s bench is on the opposite end of the ice from its net. It opens up the ice more when teams change lines and pairs.
To wit — and it’s debatable how much the long change mattered here — of their eight second-period goals in the series, six have had some sort of rush or transition or speed element to them.
“I think part of that is probably that you switch sides in the second period, so it’s a bit easier to get offensive zone changes and stuff like that,” forward Mattias Janmark said. “As far as this series goes, I think we’ve been down in a few second periods, so that brings out another level of your game maybe. Maybe they back off a little and we really have to push for it.”
The third period also belongs to Vegas, but with a 4-1 goal differential that is less forceful than the 8-1 second-period mark.
Vegas has its second chance to eliminate the Wild tonight after grabbing a 3-1 lead in the series and falling in the first chance in Game 5. The Golden Knights are 2-0 at Xcel Energy Center this postseason with a plus-7 goal differential.
The Golden Knights are 1-2 all-time in Game 6. All those games have come with Vegas holding the 3-2 lead in the series.
It’s been awhile since the Golden Knights had a player on the NHL’s “Players Unavailable Due To COVID Protocol” list, but defenseman Brayden McNabb appeared on it today. Players can join the mist for multiple reasons so it does not necessarily mean that he tested positive for COVID-19, but it does mean he is out for Game 6.
In his absence, Vegas figures to back to its Game 4 lineup, which had Nick Holden and Nicolas Hague both in on defense.
No other lineup changes are expected tonight, with the possible exception of goalie. Marc-Andre Fleury has started all five games in the series and if Vegas wanted to get Robin Lehner some game action as part of a rotation, tonight would make sense. He hasn’t played in more than two weeks and would either win the series or allow Fleury some extra rest before a potential Game 7.
While the first goalie off the ice at morning skate is typically that night’s starter, Fleury and Lehner left the ice nearly simultaneously this morning.
Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1
Series: Golden Knights lead 3-2
TV: AT&T SportsNet (DirecTV 684, Cox 1313, CenturyLink 1760)
Radio: Fox Sports 1340 AM and 98.9 FM
Betting line: Golden Knights minus-140, Wild plus-120; over/under: 5.5 (EVEN, minus-120)
Golden Knights (3-2, West Division No. 2 seed)
Coach: Pete DeBoer (second season)
Points leader: Mark Stone (5)
Goals leader: Mark Stone (4)
Assists leader: Nick Holden, Mattias Janmark, Chandler Stephenson (3)
Expected goalie: Marc-Andre Fleury (1.40 GAA, .946 save percentage)
Wild (2-3, West Division No. 3 seed)
Coach: Dean Evason (second season)
Points leaders: Matt Dumba, Jordan Greenway, Jonas Brodin (3)
Goals leader: Joel Eriksson Ek (2)
Assists leaders: Jonas Brodin (3)
Expected goalie: Cam Talbot (2.41 GAA, .928 save percentage)
Golden Knights projected lineup
Forwards
Alex Tuch—Chandler Stephenson—Mark Stone
Jonathan Marchessault—William Karlsson—Reilly Smith
Mattias Janmark—Nicolas Roy—Keegan Kolesar
William Carrier—Patrick Brown—Ryan Reaves
Defensemen
Alec Martinez—Alex Pietrangelo
Nick Holden—Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague—Zach Whitecloud
Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury, Robin Lehner
