Golden Knights survive war of attrition, push Ducks to brink in Game Five

Players blocking shots, hard checks into the boards and goals being taken off the scoresheet due to impressive work from the skaters. While the game felt like it was going from one end of the ice to the other in a heartbeat, the defensive effort required to make a deep playoff run remained visible throughout. However, as the dust settled on Tuesday, it was the Golden Knights securing the pivotal game with a 3-2 overtime victory at T-Mobile Arena.

After some back-and-forth action to get Game Five underway with multiple near goals from both teams, everything ground to a halt once Brayden McNabb finished a hard check on Ryan Poehling by the Anaheim penalty box. Poehling did not return to the game, while McNabb’s night also came to an end after just nine minutes with a game misconduct for interference. “He’s probably the biggest warrior on our team,” said Golden Knights forward Tomas Hertl about McNabb during his postgame press conference .

“He’s blocking shots, he’s there for us. There was a great message after the first, we have to step it up for him because he’s just grinding all year round. ” The ensuing five-minute power play was a good effort from Vegas’ penalty killers, but Beckett Sennecke would find a rebound from Cutter Gauthier’s shot and slide it past Carter Hart to notch a goal in four straight games.

The Golden Knights power play would get a chance late in the period to exact revenge, however. After Mitch Marner’s breakaway drew a slashing penalty from Pavel Mintyukov, Pavel Dorofeyev would launch one of the best solo efforts from a Vegas player this postseason. Stealing the puck from Chris Kreider in the offensive zone, Dorofeyev would tuck the puck past Lukas Dostal to tie the game for the home team.