The Vegas Golden Knights were hoping to end the series tonight but the Vancouver Canucks had other plans.
The Vegas Golden Knights were one win away from the Western Conference Final while Vancouver was trying to force a Game 7 on Friday. Robin Lehner was back in net for Vegas while Thatcher Demko made his second consecutive start with Markstrom out due to injury. The Canucks got off to a way better start controlling the game early and it paid off as three minutes into the period Jake Virtanen scored on a wrap-around to make it 1-0 Vancouver.
Vegas immediately went to work on the attack trying to level the game but even with all the pressure, the Knights were putting on the Canucks Demko was standing tall in net. Not only were the Knights pushing but they were also doing a great job defensively and the Canucks went on two separate streaks of 8 and 13 minutes where they didn’t register a shot on goal.
The period would end 1-0 Vancouver and with 40 minutes to play the game was far from being over.
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Into the second period and up to this point the Vancouver Canucks had yet to register a shot on goal in a span of almost 20 minutes. Three penalties were called in the period with two for Vegas and one for Vancouver but both penalty kill units did a good job killing the penalty.
The period would end goalless and Vancouver was 20 minutes away from playing Game 7 tomorrow night.
We enter the final frame and the Canucks would add to their lead early when Jt Miller with Elias Pettersson screening Robin Lehner would beat him low to make it 2-0 Vancouver. The Knights continued to pressure the Canucks in the offensive zone looking for that elusive first goal that could change the tied.
For some reason no matter what Vegas did the puck refused to stay out of the net and once again Demko was playing lights out. It got worse for the Knights as with nine minutes left in the game Quinn Hughes would make it 3-0 with a blast from the point.
With five minutes left and down three goals Pete Deboer pulled Lehner but it didn’t work as Bo Horvat would score into an empty net to make it 4-0 and all but assure a Game 7 tomorrow night.
Once again for the second straight year, the Golden Knights had seen a 3-1 series lead evaporate thanks to the stellar play of back up Thatcher Demko who made once again an impressive 45 saves for the second game in a row.