If the 33-year-old is unable to play the rest of Final, the injury on Thursday would mark the end of a frustrating season for the original Golden Knight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He missed most of the regular season, playing in Vegas\u2019 first 14 games before sustaining a lower-body injury that would keep him out until Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round against the Anaheim Ducks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough, he\u2019s done a great job coming back,\u201d defenseman Brayden McNabb<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cHe\u2019s an awesome player, a big leader in the room. He\u2019s a Day 1 guy. Been around a long time, he\u2019s a 200-foot player. You definitely miss him when he\u2019s not in there. So hopefully he can play, but if not, we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n Including Game 5,\u00a0Karlsson has nine points (three goals, six assists) and a plus-10 rating while averaging 17:12 of ice time in 15 postseason games. He was part of a dynamic line with Mitch Marner<\/a> (three goals, five assists in the Final) and Brett Howden<\/a>\u00a0(four goals, two assists).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we lose Bill, it kind of screws things up a bit,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cSo, we\u2019ll see where we go with our lines.\u201d<\/p>\n The game was tied 1-1 when Karlsson left. About 30 seconds after Karlsson\u2019s last shift, the Golden Knights took penalties 2:01 apart, the first a roughing to Jeremy Lauzon<\/a> at 8:56 and the second a cross-checking to McNabb at 10:57.\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrei Svechnikov<\/a> scored on the second power play to give Carolina a 2-1 lead at 11:58. Sebastian Aho<\/a>\u00a0scored at 17:51 to make it a 3-1 game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost momentum when we went back-to-back with penalties,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the same time we lost Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n But for how long? While Tortorella first said he had no update, he did later say he probably won\u2019t be available for a do-or-die Game 6 back at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).\u00a0<\/p>\n