Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a goal by Knights right wing Jonathan Marchessault (81) as Edmonton Oilers' Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) skates past during second period NHL Stanley Cup second round playoff action in Edmonton on Sunday May 14, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
EDMONTON – The Vegas Golden Knights advanced into familiar territory and also eliminated the Edmonton Oilers from Stanley Cup contention with a 5-2 win Sunday.
Vegas took the best-of-seven Pacific Division final four games to two and closed it out on the road at Rogers Place.
Jonathan Marchessault’s natural hat trick in the second period propelled the Golden Knights to the final four of the NHL playoffs for the fourth time in their six-year history.
“We’re only halfway done to our goal here,” Marchessault said. “We’re going to keep going until our organization, we win the ultimate goal. Tonight is just one step in the right direction.”
Vegas meets the winner of the series between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken in the Western Conference final.
That series tied at three wins apiece is to be decided in Monday’s Game 7.
Reilly Smith and William Karlsson with the empty-net goal also scored Sunday for the Golden Knights.
Goaltender Adin Hill, who replaced injured Laurent Brossoit during the series, made 39 saves for the victory in his third career playoff start.
“I’ve worked very hard my whole life to get to the NHL and to be here,” said the 27-year-old Hill from Comox, B.C.
“It’s exciting being on a team that’s this good and has chance to really do it all, I’m grateful and I’m excited about it.”
Connor McDavid and Warren Foegele were Edmonton’s goal scorers. Oilers starter Stuart Skinner was replaced by Jack Campbell for the third time in four games.
Skinner, a nominee for the Calder Trophy for the NHL’s top rookie, stopped 13 of 17 shots over 40 minutes. Campbell had four saves in the third period.
The Oilers didn’t get as far in the post-season as they did in 2022. Edmonton reached last year’s conference final before falling to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.
“It hurts,” said Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said with a shaking voice. “It’s tough to find words right now.
“When you start a season, you’re in it to win it. We’re at that stage. If you don’t complete that, it feels like a failure or a wasted year almost. It hurts.”
The Golden Knights held Edmonton’s vaunted power play to one scoreless chance in Sunday’s second period.
Vegas limited the NHL’s highest-scoring team in the regular season to 10 goals over the last four games of the series. The Knights also outscored Edmonton 17-10 even-strength.
“Our five-on-five game, I think it’s been good all year,” Marchessault said. “We were down one-nothing and two-one quite often in that series and we battled back.
The Golden Knights retained half a dozen players from the team that reached the Stanley Cup final in its expansion year in 2017-18.
“We have a lot of older guys on the team that have been through a lot of situations,” Marchessault said. “We don’t panic. It’s one of our strengths and it’s definitely going to help in the future.”
Draisaitl, who scored 13 goals in his first eight playoff games, and McDavid were reunited on the same line in Sunday’s third period in an attempt to produce more offence.
The Oilers generated several chances. McDavid rang a shot off the post. Campbell was pulled for an extra attacker with over three minutes to play, but Hill and the Golden Knights stood firm.
“What was the difference? They did a lot of good things, they shut it down,” McDavid said. “The third period was clinical. We still had our looks and didn’t find a way to get one past him.”
Marchessault completed his hat trick with a four-on-four goal at 18:36 of the second period. He scored with a wrist shot from just above the hashmarks.
The 32-year-old from Cap-Rouge, Que., was opportunistic on his first two goals.
A slapshot deflected into the air off Skinner’s shoulder and landed on the goal line for Marchessault standing at the crease to tap in at 7:44
The puck redirected off a skate in front of the crease to Marchessault, who fired into the opening at 4:26.
“A little bit of lack of execution defensively in the second period ended up really hurting us tonight,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said.
Edmonton scored first in the first five games of the series, and was occasionally guilty of giving up a quick one to Vegas immediately afterward.
The script flipped in Game 6 with the Golden Knights scoring 24 seconds after puck drop, and the Oilers countering 31 seconds later.
The host Oilers led 2-1 by 2:43 of a penalty-free first period on Foegele’s goal.
McDavid scored his eighth of the playoffs and his second even-strength 55 seconds after the opening faceoff. The Oilers captain led the post-season in points Sunday with 20.
BIG-MINUTE MEN BACK: Both clubs had premier defencemen back in their lineups Sunday after they served one-game suspensions in Game 5 – Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse and Vegas’s Pietrangelo.
The Oilers hadn’t forgotten Pietrangelo’s slash on Draisaitl at the end of Game 4, however, as both Draisaitl and Nick Bjugstad gestured at the Knight’s defenceman with their sticks during Sunday’s game.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2023.
