The Vegas Golden Knights hold a 3-1 series lead against the San Jose Sharks and have a chance to advance to the second round with a win in Game 5 tonight at SAP Center.
Though San Jose had the better play for the first 40 minutes of Game 4, Vegas was the team that capitalized on scoring chances and eventually secured a solid 5-0 win thanks to strong efforts by Max Pacioretty, Shea Theodore and especially Marc-Andre Fleury.
Facing elimination, the Sharks will throw everything they have at the Knights in tonight’s contest. But above all else, San Jose will need better goaltending from Martin Jones, who is expected to start once again despite getting pulled in Game 4.
Joe Thornton will be back in the lineup after serving his one-game suspension, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic is expected to suit up as well, which will be a huge boost for the Sharks.
The Sharks’ lines will revert to how they were before Thornton’s suspension, though Joonas Donskoi will play for the second straight game. He is expected to skate with Barclay Goodrow and Melker Karlsson on the fourth line.
Here are the projected lineups for both clubs:
Golden Knights
Marchessault — Karlsson — Smith
Pacioretty — Stastny — Stone
Nosek — Eakin — Tuch
Carrier — Bellemare — Reaves
Schmidt — Engelland
McNabb — Theodore
Merrill — Miller
Fleury
Subban
Sharks
Meier (#28) — Couture (#39) — Pavelski (#8)
Kane (#9) — Hertl (#48) — Nyquist (#14)
Sorensen (#20) — Thornton (#19) — Labanc (#62)
Donskoi (#27) — Goodrow (#23) — M. Karlsson (#68)
Vlasic (#44) — Burns (#88)
Dillon (#4) — E. Karlsson (#65)
Ryan (#47) — Braun (#61)
Jones (#31)
Dell (#30)
ICYMI, here is the preview for tonight’s game, as well as a look at what San Jose needs to do in Game 5 from Fear the Fin, the SB Nation site for the San Jose Sharks.
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