It doesn’t matter if it’s the regular season or playoffs. The Vegas Golden Knights have dominated the third period this season.
Except for the last two games of the Stanley Cup Final. Which is kind of important.
That would be the only negative to nitpick with the Knights leading the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 with a pivotal Game 4 on Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena.
The Knights have given up seven goals in the last two third periods, including four straight in Game 3 that completed the first four-goal comeback in Stanley Cup Final history.
They gave up three unanswered in the third period of Game 2, which the Knights lost 4-3 in overtime.
“I’m not concerned,” coach John Tortorella said. “It’s playoff hockey. A lot of stuff happens.
Every game in the series has been decided by one goal, and all three games have seen a multi-goal deficit erased. It’s the first time in NHL history that it’s happened consecutively.
Third-degree burns
It should draw some concern that it’s happened to the Knights in back-to-back games. They led the league in the regular season with 108 goals in the third period, and now are the postseason leaders at 28.
What alleviates that concern is winning, even if it took a fortuitous bounce off a shot from defenseman Shea Theodore at 5:38 of the second overtime to put the Knights two wins from their second championship in four years.
“A win is a win,” captain Mark Stone said. “Would we have liked to have closed that game out a lot earlier? Of course. But they’re a good team. They’re just not going to sit down and roll over.”
The Knights have every right to feel that way, given that they’re ahead in the series.
They not only took a lead into the third, but a shutout in both of games. In both instances, goaltender Carter Hart allowed three goals on three consecutive shots to get Carolina back into the game.
Hart has carried a shutout into the third period on seven occasions in the playoffs but hasn’t finished with a zero in the goals against column.
“You’re always going to check things, what you did good and what you did bad, what you can improve on,” Stone said. “There’s a lot of good things.
“We just want to keep getting our game going in the right direction, which is getting better each and every game of this series.”
The Knights feel they didn’t play a bad third period in Game 3. It wasn’t as bad of a meltdown as Game 2, when they needed a late goal from Stone to send it to overtime.
Knights’ mental game
There’s no question they were rattled after their four-goal lead was trimmed to one within 39 seconds. Tortorella liked how the Knights got to their game in a hurry and recovered.
“I haven’t been involved in a game, especially in a playoff game, where a team scores three goals within 40 seconds, and in the finals. That can set you back a little bit,” Tortorella said. “It didn’t affect us. There was no panic. I actually thought we were playing really well up to that point, and I thought we played really well after that point.”
They won the game, and that’s the only thing that matters heading into the second week of June.
Whether they won in regulation or in double overtime, the Knights head into Game 4 with a massive opportunity. For the chance to fly back to Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Stanley Cup would be in the building.
The Knights can only do the smart thing: accept it, move on, try to play better Tuesday and take a commanding lead in the series.
“They get it. They’ve been there,” Tortorella said. “A lot of this team has won and gone through the process of going through playoffs and they rely on that.
“I think they challenge themselves. It isn’t a physical skill. It’s a mental skill. We have that. I don’t know if we win the series, but I know we have that in this organization.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
Up next
Who: Hurricanes at Golden Knights
What: Stanley Cup Final, Game 4 (Knights lead 2-1)
When: 5 p.m. Tuesday
Where: T-Mobile Arena
TV: ABC
Radio: KFLG 94.7 FM/KKGK 1340 AM
Line: Knights -115; total 6
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Stanley Cup Final schedule
Game 1: Knights 5, Hurricanes 4
Game 2: Hurricanes 4, Knights 3 (OT)
Game 3: Knights 5, Hurricanes 4 (2OT)
Game 4: June 9, 5 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena, KTNV-TV (Channel 13)
*Game 5: June 11, 5 p.m. at Lenovo Center, KTNV-TV (Channel 13)
*Game 6: June 14, 5 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena, KTNV-TV (Channel 13)
*Game 7: June 17, 5 p.m. at Lenovo Center, KTNV-TV (Channel 13)
*if necessary
