*Photo from the Las Vegas Sun*
Vegas wins series 4-1
We have our first elimination of the playoffs. Mark Stone had a goal and two assists, Chandler Stephenson had two goals, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 on Thursday in Vegas.
After dropping the first game of the series, the Golden Knights won the next 4 games to reverse sweep the Jets and knock them out, securing a spot in the second round of the playoffs. The big keys were Stone and Stephenson, with Stone assisting on both of Stephenson's goals.
Stone said of working with Stephenson that "Often times, you just find chemistry with a guy. We see each other's game very well. It's hard to explain. Maybe Chandler's speed backing guys off kind of gives me time on the walls with the puck and puts them on their heels a bit. Chemistry is weird. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Fortunately, we made it work."
The only goal of the first period came from Stephenson, who made it 1-0 on his 3rd goal of the playoffs. Just 42 seconds into the second period, Stone scored for the Golden Knights, doubling the lead to 2-0. William Karlsson scored 4:41 into the second to make the Vegas lead 3-0, assisted by Michael Amadio and Reilly Smith.
Later in the second, Stephenson scored on the power play to make the score 4-0, assisted by Stone and Jack Eichel on his second goal of the night. At the 14:22 mark of the 3rd period, Kyle Connor scored to get the Jets on the board, making it 4-1 with assists coming from Adam Lowry and Blake Wheeler.
Former Jets goalie Laurent Brossoit won his 4th game in a row against his old team, securing the series win. Brossoit stopped all but one of the 30 shots the Jets sent at him, which was good for a .967 save percentage.
Brossoit said of the win that "We were obviously very motivated to win that one. Tonight especially, you don't want to travel again if you can avoid it and take advantage of the rest. Start to finish, every line, every pairing was very motivated and playing at the top of their game."
Getting the start for the Jets was once again Connor Hellebuyck, who got stuck with the loss to end the Jets season. Hellebuyck made 21 out of the 25 shots on goal from Vegas, recording a .840 save percentage in the loss.
Jets head coach Rick Bowness said after the game that "I’m so disappointed and disgusted right now, that’s my thoughts. No pushback. It’s the same crap we saw in February. As soon as we were challenged for first place, and teams were coming after us, we had no pushback. This series we had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours it’s not even close. They were the better team in the regular season, they were the better team in this series."
Up next, the Golden Knights have their spot secured in the second round, where they await the winner of the series between the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings. The Jets season is over as they have a critical offseason ahead of them.
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