Michael Amadio scored 3:40 into the second overtime to give the visiting Vegas Golden Knights a 5-4 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round series on Saturday afternoon.
Amadio slapped in a loose puck from the low slot under the crossbar after Winnipeg defenseman Dylan Samberg’s clearing pass from behind the net caromed off the skate of Ivan Barbashev to Amadio. It was his first career playoff goal.
Jack Eichel scored two power-play goals and also had an assist, Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist and Keegan Kolesar also scored for Vegas, which took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Alex Pietrangelo added two assists.
Laurent Brossoit finished with 30 saves for the Golden Knights, who won their 22nd straight playoff game when scoring at least three goals in a game despite blowing a 4-1 lead in the third period.
Kyle Connor had a goal and one assist, and Nino Niederreiter, Mark Scheifele and Adam Lowry each scored during the third-period comeback for Winnipeg. The Jets lost All-Star defenseman Josh Morrissey to a lower-body injury after two shifts in the first period following a knee-to-knee collision with Zach Whitecloud.
Connor Hellebuyck made 43 saves and Neal Pionk had three assists for the Jets.
Vegas scored on its first two shots of the game to take a 2-0 lead.
Stephenson, celebrating his 29th birthday, got the first with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle inside the near post for his second goal of the playoffs. Eichel followed with a one-timer from the left faceoff dot off a Stephenson pass, the first power-play goal in 11 playoff games for the Golden Knights.
Connor cut it to 2-1 midway through the period when he redirected Dylan DeMelo’s pass into the slot past Brossoit’s blocker side for his second goal of the series.
Eichel made it 3-1 midway through the second period with his second power-play goal of the game, blasting a one-timer from the left circle off a Pietrangelo pass through Hellebuyck’s pads.
Kolesar extended the lead to 4-1 at the 17:45 mark when he backhanded in a rebound of an Eichel shot for his second career playoff goal before the Jets stormed back with three goals to tie it.
Niederreiter cut it to 4-2 early in the third period with a wrist shot from the right circle inside the near post and over Brossoit’s glove. Scheifele followed with a power-play goal with 5:52 remaining on a wrist shot from the top left circle that clanged in off the far post.
The Jets pulled Hellebuyck for an extra attacker with 1:10 remaining and Lowry then forced overtime when he put in a backhand rebound of a Pionk point shot with 21.9 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
