At this stage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Vegas Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks knew the physicality was going to only ramp up from here.
Sure enough, both teams did everything in their power to turn Game Five into a checking battle for the ages. Players blocking shots, hard checks into the boards and goals being taken off the scoresheet due to impressive work from the skaters. While the game felt like it was going from one end of the ice to the other in a heartbeat, the defensive effort required to make a deep playoff run remained visible throughout.
However, as the dust settled on Tuesday, it was the Golden Knights securing the pivotal game with a 3-2 overtime victory at T-Mobile Arena.
After some back-and-forth action to get Game Five underway with multiple near goals from both teams, everything ground to a halt once Brayden McNabb finished a hard check on Ryan Poehling by the Anaheim penalty box. Poehling did not return to the game, while McNabb’s night also came to an end after just nine minutes with a game misconduct for interference.
“He’s probably the biggest warrior on our team,” said Golden Knights forward Tomas Hertl about McNabb during his postgame press conference.
“He’s blocking shots, he’s there for us. There was a great message after the first, we have to step it up for him because he’s just grinding all year round.”
The ensuing five-minute power play was a good effort from Vegas’ penalty killers, but Beckett Sennecke would find a rebound from Cutter Gauthier’s shot and slide it past Carter Hart to notch a goal in four straight games.
The Golden Knights power play would get a chance late in the period to exact revenge, however. After Mitch Marner’s breakaway drew a slashing penalty from Pavel Mintyukov, Pavel Dorofeyev would launch one of the best solo efforts from a Vegas player this postseason. Stealing the puck from Chris Kreider in the offensive zone, Dorofeyev would tuck the puck past Lukas Dostal to tie the game for the home team.
“Nothing special there. That’s usually what happens when you got a pickpocket from a guy,” described Dorofeyev about his play during the sequence.
The Ducks would generate more pressure in the second period, but Hart would match Dostal’s performance with 17 saves. Dorofeyev would also block a shot from Jackson LaCombe and leave the game temporarily, but would return before the end of the second.
“I just blocked a shot,” said Dorofeyev about the injury. “It’s kind of a s— part of my job, but it hurts more when I miss.”
With pressure early in the third, the Golden Knights would make their move. Rasmus Andersson’s point shot would rebound off Dostal and directly into a sea of humanity in front of the net. With a tremendous effort, Hertl would wind up going from 30 straight games without a goal to tallies in two straight by fishing the puck out and past the Anaheim goaltender.
“It’s not easy, because last time I got through this blank, it was probably when I got born to four years old,” said Hertl about his now former struggles to generate offense.
“I tried so many different things over the last two months, it was almost impossible not to think about it. Hopefully, this is behind me, and this stretch never happened, honestly, because it was way too long.”
It would not be enough to finish the job for the Golden Knights, as Olen Zellweger would make good on Anaheim’s first push at sustained offensive pressure for his first playoff goal to tie the game at two.
Overtime would go by much quicker in this Game Five, with Jack Eichel whipping a pass past three Ducks and to Dorofeyev, who roofed it over Dostal to secure a win for the Golden Knights and cap off another signature game for Vegas’ leading goal scorer in the regular season.
“That’s what I got to do. It’s just my job,” remarked Dorofeyev.
“The puck seems to follow him,” added Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella about Dorofeyev’s performance in Game Five. “He doesn’t say much, he just goes and plays. He’s a good two-way player.”
The victory also pushes Hart to 6-0 in playoff overtime, rewarding the netminder for a 34-save performance.
“Honestly, we have all the faith in the world in Carter,” said Andersson about Hart.
“If you look back at the Utah series, I think he was really good there. He stole a couple of games for us when we were not our best. You look at the OT games in the Utah series, he did some really big saves for us. As I said, we just have all the belief in the world.”
For the second series in a row, the Golden Knights go on the road in the hopes of finishing another series in six games when the action returns to Anaheim on Thursday.
“We’re full of experience. It’s something that you lean on,” said Tortorella.
“It’s easy to talk about it after a win but, even when we lose, I’m not worried about the room. I do not have to police that. We don’t need to be around a lot as far as that stuff’s concerned, and that’s the trust we have with them but, more importantly, the trust they have with one another.”