HIGHLIGHTS:
SAN JOSE – For the second straight game, the San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights went into overtime to decide a winner. And once again, the visiting team would come out on top.
8:17 was all it took for William Karlsson to lift the Golden Knights to a 4-3 overtime victory in Game 3 of their Western Conference Semifinals series at the SAP Center on Monday night.
The victory saw Vegas take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series with San Jose.
Like everyone figured, being back on home ice would amp up the Sharks. They came out firing and outshot the Golden Knights 11-4 in the first nine minutes of the period and 16-7 for the period. Despite the pressure, neither team would light the lamp as we went into the second period scoreless.
Timo Meier opened the scoring in the middle frame with a beautiful one-timer off a pass from Chris Tierney that Vegas goaltender Marc Andre-Fleury had no chance of saving. Meier’s goal would go down in the stat sheet as a power-play goal.
Vegas quickly answered back with three consecutive goals to take a two-goal lead. First, Colin Miller knotted the score at one apiece as the put home a tally on the man advantage for the Golden Knights.
Jonathan Marchessault’s one-timer got past Sharks goaltender Martin Jones just over two minutes later and Reilly Smith put Vegas up 3-1 with his goal, capping off three goals in a span of five minutes.
The Sharks would rally to force the overtime period with two big goals. Fresh off a suspension, Evander Kane scored just as San Jose’s power-play chance expired to cut the deficit to one. Then, in a scramble in front of the Vegas net, Tomas Hertl would bang home the equalizer past Fleury with 1:57 remaining in regulation.
In overtime, San Jose came out aggressive. Fleury robbed Logan Couture’s wrist shot on what was sure to be the game-winning goal had he not saved it. His save would set up Karlsson’s goal at 8:17 as his wrist shot got past Jones for the win.
Jones made 29 saves on the night, while Fleury made 39 stops in between the pipes for Vegas. The Sharks outshot the Golden Knights 42-33 for the game and finished 1-for-4 on the power-play.
