Full Game Highs: Golden Knights Complete Three-Goal Comeback in 5-3 Win Against Avalanche

The Vegas Golden Knights overcame a three-goal deficit to defeat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3, in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final on Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena, taking a 3-0 series lead.The Avalanche jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period of Game 3 of the Western Conference Final as Gabriel Landeskog opened the scoring at 3:21, Nazem Kadri doubled the lead just over seven minutes later, and Jack Drury added a shorthanded breakaway goal with 6:45 remaining in the frame. The Golden Knights responded immediately in the second period when Mark Stone scored on the power play just 19 seconds into the period off a setup from Mitch Marner and Tomas Hertl. William Karlsson cut the deficit to 3-2 at 4:05 of the second by burying a rebound from Marner’s shot, before Keegan Kolesar tied the game later in the period by tipping Dylan Coghlan’s point shot and backhanding the loose puck over the line.Tomas Hertl completed the comeback in the third period, giving Vegas its first lead of the night at 8:21 with a highlight-reel backhand goal after beating Sam Malinski off the rush. Brett Howden sealed the 5-3 win with an empty-net goal from the Vegas blue line in the final minute. Carter Hart made 32 saves, including 19 over the final two periods, as the Golden Knights took a commanding 3-0 series lead.Hertl finished with a goal and an assist for first-star honors and scored his first postseason game-winning goal with Vegas. Stone recorded two points in his return to the lineup and scored his franchise-record 40th playoff goal with the Golden Knights. Marner added two assists for his sixth multi-point game of the postseason, Karlsson posted a goal and an assist with a game-high plus-three rating, and Kolesar scored his first goal of the playoffs. Hart extended his streak to five consecutive games with at least 30 saves.Vegas completed the first three-goal comeback in franchise playoff history and became just the 10th team in NHL history to take a 3-0 series lead against a Presidents’ Trophy winner. Hertl has seven points in his last six games, while Howden’s 10 postseason goals are tied for the NHL lead with Pavel Dorofeyev. Karlsson’s 76 career playoff points rank second in franchise history, and Marner became only the fifth player in NHL history to record at least 14 assists in his first 15 postseason games with a team.