THIRD PERIOD

After Stuart Skinner made the miraculous save to close the second period, it was Adin Hill’s turn to punctuate the period with an incredible save.

Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin exchanged passes on the left side of Vagas’ zone to pull Hill at the left post, leaving Viktor Arvidsson wide open in the opposite circle. The Swedish forward received the puck and fired a one-timer that looked like a sure goal, but the Vegas goaltender came up to make an incredible save.

This would also prove to be an important safeguard.

The Oilers couldn’t stop the Golden Knights from converting their second power play of the night, which came with more than 11 minutes left in the third period when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was called for holding below the Golden goal line Knights.

“I don’t want to get too involved,” Nugent-Hopkins said of his penalty. “(The official) calls and I just try to play on it. From his point of view, it’s a penalty, and he calls it. It’s a tough moment to take it like a killer, especially because of his kindness for going so far for us.

Edmonton’s penalty kill had nearly cleared the entire two-minute offense before Noah Hanifin filtered a point shot through Skinner’s five holes from distance, tying the game at 2-2 with 9: 55 to play on a shot that Skinner would certainly make. I wanted to come back.

“It’s not fun being in the penalty box, especially at this time,” Nugent-Hopkins continued. “We worked so hard the rest of the game, so obviously I’d like to get that one back.”

While it looked like overtime would be necessary, the Golden Knights still had time on the clock to steal the two points in the final minute of regulation.

Hanifin went unchecked on the left side, leading forward Tomas Hertl to win the puck on a shot against Mattias Ekholm and push it to Hanifin for the game-winner on a shot snapshot under the glove of Stuart Skinner with 48.4. seconds remaining.

“Last game they shot the puck and we got into a battle where there should be support in the corner,” Knoblauch said. “But there was no support, so it looks bad for Ekky, but it’s not for him. Ekky should have had help there and they managed to make that cross pass.”

“It’s very difficult for a goalie to make that save going east-west and in the crease. Just about a minute before that, we almost gave up a very similar shot, and that just can’t happen if you want to win hockey games regularly.

“We can’t let anyone go down when we’re four-on-two in the D zone,” Ekholm said. “Pure and simple.”