The Vegas Golden Knights’ season has come to an end.
The Golden Knights were facing elimination when they hosted the Edmonton Oilers for Game 5 Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena, but it was the Oilers who came away victorious with a 1-0 win in overtime. Kasperi Kapanen scored the game-winning goal 7:19 into extra time to clinch the series 4-1.
Stuart Skinner recorded back-to-back shutouts with 47 combined saves in Games 4 and 5 to knock Vegas out of the playoffs. For the first time in franchise history, the Golden Knights’ season ended in the second round.
The Golden Knights were forced to go to battle without their captain, as Mark Stone was out of the lineup due to an upper-body injury sustained late in Game 3. Stone played in Game 4 but did not even take warmups on Wednesday. Cole Schwindt made his playoff debut as the 12th forward.
Bruce Cassidy shuffled the lines to try to get the offense going, putting Victor Olofsson and Brett Howden with Jack Eichel, Ivan Barbashev with William Karlsson and Reilly Smith and Nicolas Roy with Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev.
In the end, it wasn’t enough.
Game 5 was a low-event matchup that remained scoreless through regulation.
Vegas had one scoring chance and one high-danger chance in the first period and just eight shots in the first 34 minutes of the contest before adding another five late in the second.
The Golden Knights had one really solid shift — by the Karlsson line — late in the second, but Vegas wasn’t able to finish despite generating 11 shot attempts and getting four pucks on net. Otherwise, it was an underwhelming offensive effort through 40 minutes.
There weren’t any glaring errors, and the Golden Knights took care of business with two quality penalty kills, including one that straddled the first intermission, but the Golden Knights did not come out with the level of urgency the moment required. They played a structured game and didn’t give up much, but they never took control.
Even so, they entered the third period with every chance to win the game and extend the series.
Barbashev drew a tripping penalty behind the net to give Vegas its first power play of the night just 33 seconds into the third. Vegas generated three scoring chances and one shot on the man-advantage but couldn’t convert. Eichel then had a masterful shift during which he made a fantastic play to set up Howden for what looked like a backdoor tap-in, but, once again, Vegas was unable to convert.
This led to a breakaway for Leon Draisaitl, but Adin Hill came up with a clutch save to keep it 0-0. Hill had to make another big stop on Draisaitl later in the third.
Vegas continued to push and had some extended time in the offensive zone but never really tested Skinner. The Golden Knights hit the 20-shot threshold with 6:58 remaining in regulation, but it was the Oilers who had the next wave of pressure, including five consecutive shot attempts, three of which were blocked by Alex Pietrangelo and Brayden McNabb. The Oilers then matched that with three straight blocks of their own. The Golden Knights got a few more pucks to the net but were largely kept to the perimeter in the offensive end.
Vegas had been careful to limit Edmonton’s transition game for most of the night, but Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman broke out on a 2-on-1 with just over a minute to go. Hill came up with a season-saving stop on McDavid’s first shot of the game, getting help from Noah Hanifin, who did an excellent job taking away the pass and limiting McDavid’s options.
By the end of regulation, Edmonton led 24-22 in shots.
It all came down to overtime.
The Oilers had all the pressure early, forcing Hill to make several tricky saves. But a scramble in the crease left the puck sitting on the goal line, and Kapanen — who wasn’t even in the lineup in the first three games of the series — had the last say, shoving the puck into the net for the game- and series-deciding goal.
The Golden Knights’ season came to an end on a 5-on-5 goal by a depth forward, two areas of the matchup Edmonton controlled throughout the series.
Vegas recorded just two shots in overtime and trailed the Oilers 32-24 when all was said and done.
None of those 24 found the back of the net in a must-win game. Skinner, who entered the series with an 0-2 record after allowing 11 goals in two games, finished the second round with a shutout streak of 127:19:04. The Golden Knights had the fifth-best offense in the regular season, but it was held without a goal in the final two games of the season.
Hill had his best game of the series, turning aside 31 of 32 shots for a .969 save percentage.
“[Hill] gave us a chance to win tonight, so I’m bummed that we just couldn’t score one,” Karlsson said. “He had a hell of a game. He really gave us a chance.”
The Golden Knights played a decent game, but it was not the kind of performance required given the circumstances. Hill was significantly better. It was cleaner than previous games. The Golden Knights were more physical and won more battles. They didn’t give up much defensively. Vegas had extended shifts in the offensive zone. McDavid was held off the board.
“I liked our game,” Cassidy said. “I thought we competed hard physically. We wanted to win puck battles, we wanted to take care of the puck, we knew we couldn’t give up any easy goals. That’s going to take away some of your offense, or the risky part. It’s getting inside, getting second chances. It was tough for both teams, and they got one at the end. That’s it.”
However, the Golden Knights were facing elimination. It was win or go home. They needed to be much better than decent.
Vegas played the type of game one might expect from a team playing on the road with a 3-1 lead in the series. They had 67 minutes to fix that. They couldn’t.
“I wouldn’t say it was our best through the series, so that’s where I’m going to walk away and say, what could I have done better to get the best out of this group? That’s on me. But today, the response was excellent physically, so I’m super proud of the guys. The way they came out, they were committed to playing the right way. They wanted to win. This was not not being prepared. I thought we had pockets of really good hockey. It’s a good hockey team over there. Don’t forget, there’s no entitlement that we’re just going to win. They’re a hungry team. I don’t care what the standings were at the end of the year. … It’s two pretty evenly matched teams. They found a way to be better than us in certain areas.”
Cassidy pointed to the slot battle as the main difference in the game.
“They were better than us. That’s a big part of the game. Huge part of the game. It’s one of our strengths, but I can’t run from it. They scored, out-willing us at the front of the net, and we weren’t able to do the same at the other end. It looked like a couple times — Hertl had one, I think Howid back door — like we were gonna get that net-front goal, but it didn’t happen.”
The Oilers were relatively contained in regulation, but it was clear which team came out to win in overtime. The Golden Knights may have benefited from a timeout. It shouldn’t have been necessary so shortly after intermission, but it may have helped slow things down. The Golden Knights were overwhelmed early, and they never recovered.
After getting shut out and outplayed in Game 4, the Golden Knights talked about the importance of playing with urgency in Game 5. But that urgency was limited in the season finale. The killer instinct was absent. Despite some strong efforts, no one stepped up and made a play.
The Golden Knights needed one goal to save the season, and they couldn’t get it.
“We had chances, we just couldn’t really capitalize,” Pietrangelo said. “It’s more on us than them.”
Eichel played well but couldn’t connect. Karlsson and Smith were noticeable but couldn’t make it happen. Hertl, Barbashev, Howden and Dorofeyev finished the series with zero points. Theodore had one assist in five games.
The power play, arguably the Golden Knights’ best asset from the regular season, went 0-for-4 when it mattered most. The Golden Knights fought all year for home-ice advantage but lost all three home games against the Oilers.
“We were all excited to play here at home, and unfortunately we lost,” Karlsson said. “Two of those three games we played really well, but [the Oilers] came out with the win. That’s hockey, and they did a good job.”
At the end of the day, it was a failure to execute that cost the Golden Knights in Game 5 and in the series. Edmonton deserves credit, but the Golden Knights didn’t play anywhere near their potential. They will have a long offseason to reflect, evaluate and respond.
“Any time you have a good team, you just feel like you didn’t really finish what you set out to do,” Pietrangelo said. “We got a hell of a team, hell of a locker room. It’s disappointing. It’s a hard league to win in. We know that, we knew that going in. It’s just disappointing.”
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.