Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Golden Knights can’t finish sweep against Chicago

Golden Knights Blackhawks VGK

Vegas Golden Knights’ Nick Holden (22) is stopped by Chicago Blackhawks’ goalie Corey Crawford (50) as Blackhawks’ Alexander Nylander (92) defends during first-period NHL Western Conference Stanley Cup playoff hockey action in Edmonton, Alberta, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Updated Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020 | 8:07 p.m.

It was the best performance statistically in the three-year playoff history of the Vegas Golden Knights.

Vegas’ 49 shots on goal Sunday in Game 4 against the Chicago Blackhawks were the most in a regulation playoff game in team history, and the 96 shot attempts were the most they have ever had through three periods — regular season or playoffs.

Still, they only slipped one puck past Chicago goalie Corey Crawford, who was brilliant in a 3-1 victory to deny Vegas a playoff series sweep.

“Credit to the guys, I think it was our best game of the series,” Vegas goalie Robin Lehner said. “We just weren’t rewarded today. We’ve just got to go to the next game, and we’ll be fine.”

The Golden Knights laid siege to the Chicago net for 60 minutes and were met by Crawford, who made 48 saves, the most stops the 35-year-old with two Stanley Cup rings has made in regulation in a playoff game.

And he did it on the second night of a back-to-back after losing on Saturday.

It wasn’t just the amount of shots. The Blackhawks’ skaters did Crawford no favors, as Vegas was able to knife through the defense and register 14 high-danger scoring chances and 3.3 expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“You’ve got to tip your hat to the goalie, he was their best player tonight,” Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’ve got to find a way on Tuesday to get a few past him.”

Chicago scored 4:08 into the game when a defensive breakdown put Drake Caggiula all alone in front of Lehner. His goal put the Golden Knights in a deficit for the first time in the series.

Chicago extended its lead to 2-0 later in the first period when Matthew Highmore tossed the puck at the Vegas goal, and it ricocheted off Lehner and into the net. It was one Lehner would rather have back — he said himself it’s one he needs to save — and even though it stood up as the game-winner, it wasn’t the reason Vegas lost.

Because after that Blackhawks goal, they didn’t score against Lehner again. Their third goal was an empty-netter with 11 seconds remaining, a goal that didn’t mean much in deciding the outcome of the game.

After Highmore’s goal, Vegas locked in the rest of the game. Shea Theodore scored 18 seconds later to make it 2-1, part of 11 consecutive shot attempts before the Blackhawks fired one back the other way again. From Highmore’s goal to the rest of the game, a span of 46:20, Vegas out-attempted Chicago 72-30.

“Just comes down to executing and burying your chances, that’s what it really comes down to,” Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “In the playoffs, teams are going to have opportunities. It’s the guys that will be able to bury them that will be the heroes of the game.”

If there’s any place to nitpick, it’s on the power play, where Vegas went 0-for-3 and moved to 0-for-9 on the series. The Golden Knights aren’t finishing their chances there, but even then criticizing that unit is somewhat disingenuous. Vegas had nine shots and 16 attempts in six minutes of power-play time, a shot attempt almost every 22 seconds.

Crawford was unbelievable, and sometimes that’s all a team needs.

They were able to beat Crawford in the three games previous to Sunday, and shrugging off Game 4 as an outlier is more rational than panicking about the Blackhawks coming back from down three games, something only four teams in NHL history have ever done.

The series should be over. Instead the Golden Knights will suit up for Game 5 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday with another chance to end it. The way this series has gone, it’s likely that they do.

But if you looked at just the stat sheet of Sunday’s game, you’d say it was likely they won that one.

“That’s the irony of playoff hockey; you play your best games and you lose and you win other games that you’re not playing at that level,” DeBoer said. “I liked a lot of our game tonight. We just want to replicate that again on Tuesday.”

Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at twitter.com/@j15emerson.

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