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VEGAS 2 MONTREAL 1 (OT) (The best-of-seven series is even at 2-2)
Roy’s original shot in front of the net was stopped by Carey Price but the rebound went right back to Roy who made no mistake the second time around and shot the puck over the fallen Price to give Vegas the win.
For Roy, it was his second straight game with a goal as the Golden Knights have received no goal-scoring from their top-six, although Roy has been seeing some action on the top line with Chandler Stephenson (upper-body) out of action for the past three games.
The big surprise of the night was that Robin Lehner was between the pipes for the Golden Knights as coach Peter DeBoer looked like a genius in giving the backup the start. Lehner last played on May 30, giving up seven goals on 37 shots to the Colorado Avalanche in the opener of the West Division final.
But Lehner was on his game Sunday night, stopping 27-of-28 shots for his first win of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs. Look for DeBoer to go back to Lehner on Tuesday in Game 5.
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The first period was completely different than Friday’s opening frame as Montreal outshot Vegas 11-4 after the Golden Knights completely outplayed Montreal in Game 3, outshooting them 17-3.
The Canadiens had the best chances as Lehner stopped Eric Staal in close after a pass from Corey Perry and managed to keep the puck out of the net on the rebound as Joel Armia’s shot was stopped on the goal line. The shot was reviewed in Toronto but with no definitive angle to see if the puck actually crossed the goal line, the faceoff remained in the Vegas zone and there was no goal.
Josh Anderson had the other good chance in the period as he worked his way in front of the net after beating Nick Holden but his glorious opportunity went just over the crossbar and the score remained tied at nil heading into the second.
The second period was fairly quiet until Nick Suzuki was called for hooking Alec Martinez at 16:44. The Golden Knights finally looked good on the power play, the closest call being Alex Pietrangelo beating Carey Price but clanging it off the goalpost.
The Canadiens killed off the penalty (their 26th in a row) as Vegas dropped to 4-of-39 in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Montreal finally opened the scoring and although Shea Weber did not draw an assist, he was instrumental in the goal as he checked Nicolas Roy by the side of the net, when it appeared that Roy would have a wide-open net to shoot at. This occurred just as Suzuki left the penalty box.
The puck went to Suzuki who found Paul Byron on a breakaway. Byron went in and beat Lehner up high on the stick side to give Montreal the lead 1-0. Montreal outshot Vegas 9-8 in the second period.
The third period finally had the Golden Knights playing desperate hockey. The Habs almost made it 2-0 when Cole Caufield showed his wheels by breaking away from the Vegas blueline, but Lehner made the stop as Caufield tried to go five-hole.
The Golden Knights finally evened the score when Brayden McNabb’s first of the post-season, snuck through Price at the 10:37 mark of the third. William Karlsson and Shea Theodore drew the assists, sending the game into overtime and eventually Roy’s heroics.
Price stopped 19 shots as his Stanley Cup record fell to 10-5 with a 2.09 GAA and a .931 save percentage.
Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher each had five shots on goal.
Josh Anderson had 10 hits while Suzuki had seven.
Alex Pietrangelo, Alex Martinez and Jon Merrill all had five blocked shots.
Game 5 is Tuesday in Vegas with a 9:00 pm start time.
NIGHTLY LEADERS
Goals
Paul Byron – 1
Brayden McNabb – 1
Nicolas Roy – 1
Assists
Nick Suzuki – 1
Shea Theodore – 1
Max Pacioretty – 1
William Karlsson – 1
Alex Tuch – 1
Shots on Goal
Max Pacioretty – 5
Brendan Gallagher – 5
Hits
Josh Anderson – 10
Nick Suzuki – 7
Tomas Nosek – 6
Penalty Minutes
Tomas Nosek – 2
Alec Martinez – 2
Nick Suzuki – 2
Shea Weber – 2
