Friday, April 12, 2019 10:30 PM (ET)

Short-handed goals help Knights even series with Sharks

Field Level Media
Apr 13, 2019

Max Pacioretty had a goal and an assist, and William Karlsson and Colin Miller each scored short-handed goals to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-3 victory over the host San Jose Sharks on Friday night to even their first-round Western Conference playoff series at 1-1.

Mark Stone and Cody Eakin also scored goals, and Paul Stastny added two assists for Vegas. Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 34 saves for his 76th career playoff win, one behind Mike Vernon for seventh all-time.

The best-of-seven series now switches to Las Vegas for the next two games, beginning with Game 3 on Sunday night.

Logan Couture had a goal and an assist, Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl also scored goals, and Erik Karlsson had two assists for San Jose, which finished just 1-for-8 on the power play. Aaron Dell, who replaced Martin Jones at the 6:39 mark of the first period, finished with 14 saves.

Vegas, which managed just five shots in each of the first two periods in its 5-2 Game 1 loss on Wednesday, scored three goals on seven shots in the first 6:11 to take a quick 3-0 lead. Eakin got the first just 58 seconds into the game, firing a wrist shot from the high slot past Jones' blocker side.

Miller, a healthy scratch in Game 1, then made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal, exiting the penalty box, intercepting a Karlsson pass and then finishing an odd-man rush with a shot from the right circle under Jones' right arm.

Pacioretty followed less than two minutes later with a wrist shot also from the middle of the right circle that beat Jones on his blocker side.

San Jose rebounded to tie it on goals by Couture, Hertl and Thornton in the span of 2:09 at the end of the period.

The Sharks then appeared to take a 4-3 lead 51 seconds into the second period on a goal by Brent Burns, but the score was waved off for goaltender interference on Couture, who also picked up a penalty on the play. Stone then buried a rebound of a Stastny shot on the ensuing power play to put the Golden Knights back in front, 4-3.

Vegas, which didn't score any short-handed goals during its remarkable run to the Stanley Cup Final last season, got its second of the game midway through the third period. Karlsson took an outlet pass up the middle of the ice from Reilly Smith and then beat Dell with a backhand shot on a breakaway to up the lead to 5-3.

--Field Level Media

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