{"id":693403,"date":"2026-05-25T11:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/693403\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:29:10","slug":"golden-knights-complete-improbable-comeback-against-avalanche-in-game-3-of-west-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/693403\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Knights complete improbable comeback against Avalanche in Game 3 of West Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Then they went out on the ice and practiced what they preached.<\/p>\n

Just 19 seconds into the second period, Marner set up captain Mark Stone<\/a>\u00a0for a power-play goal that narrowed the Colorado lead to 3-1. It was Stone\u2019s first game back after missing the previous five with a lower-body injury, and his impact was immediate.<\/p>\n

Less than four minutes later, forward William Karlsson<\/a> brought the Golden Knights to within a goal at 4:05. For Karlsson, who missed the majority of the regular season with a lower-body injury, it was his first goal since Oct. 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At 12:46, it was the rough and tumble Keegan Kolesar<\/a>, hardly known for his offensive exploits, who tied the game 3-3. It was just Kolesar\u2019s fourth postseason goal in 71 career playoff games.<\/p>\n

It couldn\u2019t have come at a better time for the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n

But for Vegas, on this night of many heroes, the best was still yet to come.<\/p>\n

It came via forward Tomas Hertl<\/a>, who had recently endured a 29-game goal\u00a0drought stretching back into the regular season. He snapped that dubious streak by scoring in Game 4 of the Western Conference Second Round against the Anaheim Ducks, then added another in Game 5.<\/p>\n

But nothing as splashy, as riveting, as theatrical as this one.<\/p>\n

Midway through the third period, Hertl was flying down the left wing when he took a pass from Stone. He bore down on Sam Malinski<\/a>\u00a0before turning the Avalanche defenseman inside out, then fired a backhand shot past goalie Scott Wedgewood to put Vegas up 4-3 at 8:21.<\/p>\n

Did we mention the word, spectacular?<\/p>\n

To be fair, Karlsson gave the goal an 8.5 out of 10. What would it take for him to hand out a perfect 10?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe a spin-o-rama?\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Only in Vegas are the standards for spectacular that high.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I\u2019m done with the scoring slumps,\u201d Hertl said with a chuckle, adding, \u201cI was really happy about it (the goal).\u201d<\/p>\n

Brett Howden then sealed the deal with an empty-net goal for the 5-3 final with 59 seconds left in regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just care about winning the games,\u201d Hertl said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why this room is so much fun to play with. I think that\u2019s why we came back, because we believe in every single guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more reason for Vegas to believe.<\/p>\n

Prior to Game 3, the Avalanche had gone 52-0-0 in games this season (regular season and playoffs) in which they had a multigoal lead.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Golden Knights spoiled that streak in dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n

And with one more victory, they\u2019ll do the same to Colorado\u2019s Stanley Cup aspirations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Then they went out on the ice and practiced what they preached. Just 19 seconds into the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-693403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}