Golden Knights achieve a lead 0.4 seconds to beat Oilers in game 3: snack bars

Edmonton -The golden knights thrown the script on the comeback -kids of the NHL comeback on Saturday evening in Rogers Place.

Vegas gathered from an early two-goal deficit to defeated Edmonton 4: 3 for the first win of the second round with a Summer beating goal by Reilly Smith with 0.4 seconds in the game. It came after Connor McDavid bound the game with just over three minutes before playing for the Oilers.

Reilly Smith with 0.4 seconds left it wins for Vegas pic.twitter.com/yhruhizdh6

– Sportsnet (@sportsnet) May 11, 2025

The win from Edmonton cuts the victory to 2-1, whereby the home team still wins in the series.

Corey Perry delivered a perfect start for the oilers with two goals in the first nine games of the game. The 39-year-old showed that he still has the goal to open the gate with a perfectly placed wrist shot in the transition after McDavid was delayed, and found it in the game.

Minutes later, Perry fought his way to the front of the Vegas network with an Edmonton Power Play and drew off a shot from Evan Bouchard to Adin Hill to make it 2-0.

Vegas quickly reacted with two goals in less than a minute to captivate it with 2-2. Nicolas Roy used a DEFARETES Rash from Stuart Skinner in front of the Edmonton network, then Reilly Smith went to Skinner 54 seconds later.

William Karlsson gave Vegas late in the second period, and the golden knights ended defensively in the third period and only allowed 20 shots.

After Hill had given two goals in the first four shots, he found his rhythm. At the other end, Skinner fought in seven games in his first start and allowed four goals on 24 shots to facilitate Calvin Pickard, who was injured in game 2.

For the second game in a row, the Golden Knights Edmonton Stars mainly kept in chess. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl earned both templates, but McDavid was held onto the goal without a shot. Trainer Kris Knoblauch divided the two into separate lines that searched for a spark, but Vegas defended the two well and never allowed them to go into the transition.

The defender of Vegas, Brayden McNabb, surprised many after playing at the late game 2 and a morning skate was missing on Saturday. He gave the Golden Knights 19 minutes and captured himself in several hard Net front battles.

This is the second time that the Golden Knights game 3 won after falling back 2-0 in a playoff series. They also did it against Colorado in 2021 and won the next three games to eliminate the avalanche in the second round with 4: 2.

Stuart Skinner not too snuff in return

The way Pickard fell on six victories in a row – of which his trainer felt that he was “stolen” for the team – was Skinner on the net when they returned. The only real way for the Oilers' No. 1 goalkeeper in the third year to win back his job was when Pickard suffered an injury.

This is exactly what happened as a Pickard, although he scored a 5: 4 victory in overtime in game 2, was too injured to make his seventh start in a row. And although Skinner had a few solid moments in his return, he was not good enough because he allowed four goals at 24 shots.

At the first goal of Golden Knights, he could not cope with a shot from Nicolas Hague, which meant that a back rim was free for a unchecked Nicolas Roy. He made no mistake to bring Vegas to the board and to bring Edmonton's lead in half of the first period at 3:17 p.m.

Reilly Smith scored the score 54 seconds later to have the chance when he went around Oiler's winger Vasily Podkolzin. Smith finished the game by putting the puck through Skinner's legs.

Skinner made a few big stops on Tomas Hertl in the second half, even on a wrap, but he couldn't try William Karlsson's attempt. This gave the golden knights their first advantage of the game.

And then there was the stunning goal with the game.

Skinner did not go well for Skinner when these two teams met in the playoffs in 2023. He was drawn in three of his last four starts and achieved a percentage of 0.875 in the six-game series of 0.875 obtained by Vegas. Since then he had recovered well against the Golden Knights and achieved a percentage of 0.914 savings in six starts.

However, it must be said with certainty that the work on Saturday reminds more of these post -season battles than the regular season gymnastics.

The line consistency finally ends – and with success

Apart from a few improvements here and there, the oilers have used the same top six since the third period of their comeback win in game 4 against the Kings and the same lines since game 5.

Well, that finally ended on Saturday. The first and second trios scored a goal in the third period with the Oilers.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman have made their usual positions to Connor McDavids. In the meantime, McDavid's recently usual Linematen Leon Draisaitl and Corey Perry were moved into the second line. There Draisaitl Perry and Evander Kane.

More shift came into the back half of the frame. The Oilers invited its upper line with Hyman instead of Perry. Nugent-Hopkins Kane and Perry (and also Viktor Arvidsson) centered with Draisaitl with McDavid.

The second set of changes when McDavid defeated a puck in front of Brayden McNabbs Stick and from Hill with 3:02 in the third binding stick to bind the game.

The Oilers were due for a kind of upgrade. They hardly scored two goals of the first period and only had 20 shots on the net.

Draisaitl in particular had a hard night. In the first period when he hit the crossbar, he could not benefit from a nice feed from McDavid. Overall, he only managed a secondary support. In order to make things worse, a bad line change in the second was also partly responsible for the fact that the golden knights achieved a strange Rush and Karlsson and achieved the go-a-haad goal.

And that was before Smith's shot was thrown into the net before the Summer.

Remove the worm

Check your calendar to make sure it is not in 2011. Because it felt certain that it felt in the way Perry played in the first period.

Perry scored twice before the game was 12 minutes old and showed some of the properties that were recently around him.

In the middle of the Los Angeles series, Oilers Superstar Leon Draisaitl Perry's ability to “read the piece before it happens” and how he can “Manöver in situations to be successful. “ Perry did all of this at his first goal. He found open ice in the zone of the Golden Knights, accepted a pass from Connor McDavid, clutched around Ivan Barbashev and then shot against the grain on Adin Hill, who went down early.

Less than four minutes later, Perry scored the power play. Perry has more time in the top unit about Zach Hyman because coach Kris Knoblauch said during the King Matchup that he appreciates the “touch and fitness” of the veteran. These skills were exhibited when he tipped into Evan Bouchard's shot.

The way Perry with McDavid and Draisaitl on the upper line could be up to date and arrive in order to get a good part of these playoffs – although during the time for Hyman and Evander Kane – was so helpful for the oilers. His piece is one reason why the coaching team was able to use the dynamic duo together so much and still has a balanced list.

Perry now scores five goals in nine playoff games after he was recorded in 81 regular seasonal competitions 19-goal efforts. Oh, and he will be 40.

Vegas loses his captain early

Golden Knights Mark Stone's wing player left the game after only six shifts and never returned. He lost an advantage in the neutral zone and collided on the way down with Perry, but played three more layers before leaving 6:20 in the first period.

Subsequently, Stone was excluded with a injury to the upper body, which forced the golden knights to play the remaining two periods with 11 strikers. It is obviously a massive loss for Vegas. Stone was second in the team both in the regular season (67 points) and in the playoffs (eight points).

Stone scored twice in game 1 of this series and played a factor in all three goals from Vegas that night. In game 2 he recorded two more templates and tied him with Jack Eichel for most points in the series. He is the team's emotional leader, plays hard matchups and even strength and an important piece of both special teams.

William Karlsson's big night

With her back against the proverbial ropes, the Golden Knights needed an outstanding performance by a Star player and Karlsson was most of the night her best player. The center gave Vegas his first tour of the night in the second half in a beautiful give-and-go with Noah Hanifin in the transition, which was picked up by a great shot from Karlsson, the Skinner hit the short side.

As normally at Karlsson, he was just as impressive without the puck as with him. He pursued Edmonton's stars defensively all night, hummed the ice, forced sales in the neutral zone and won Puck battles along the boards.

Karlsson regularly created opportunities for his Linematen and could have had an even bigger night if they ended a few more chances. He was so defensive that garlic avoided the matchup with Karlsson for his stars with the last change. McDavid played against Karlsson for less than three minutes, while Draisaitl played for six and a half minutes.

Especially when Stone is missed at any time, the golden knights in this series will be heavily rely on Karlsson.

(Photo: Leila Devlin / Getty Images)