GDB +11.0 Wrap Up: Oilers get into penalty trouble and drop Game 5, Golden Knights lead series 3-2
11 months ago
The Edmonton Oilers have their backs up against the wall.
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The Vegas Golden Knights took Game 5 at home by a score of 4-3 and now lead this second-round series three games to two.
The Oilers got out to an early lead thanks to a power play goal from Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman put them up 2-1 with a goal on the man advantage of his own. Edmonton carried that lead for most of the second period but the game completely flipped upside down when Philip Broberg and Mattias Janmark were called for penalties 44 seconds apart.
Mark Stone scored on the five-on-three and then Reilly Smith scored 29 seconds later to put Vegas on top. Just one minute after that, Nicolas Hague fired a shot from the point that got through Stuart Skinner to make the score 4-2. McDavid got the Oilers to within one goal early in the third frame but the Golden Knights managed to close the door the rest of the way.
Game 6 will be back in Edmonton on Sunday.
PRESENTED BY BETWAY
Oilersnation’s player of the game: Connor McDavid
The best player of all time has been quiet these playoffs, but he turned it up a notch on Friday evening.
The G.O.A.T of hockey scored two goals in the game. The first was the opening goal, coming early in the game. The Oilers have scored the opening goal in all five games in the series. The second goal came in early in the third period after Keegan Kolesar boarded Mattias Ekholm late in the second period.
This gave the Oilers hope for over 15 minutes, but they weren’t able to tie the game.
With all that being said, McDavid has been rather quiet throughout the first 11 games of the playoffs, as Draisaitl has taken the reigns. However, when the season was on the line, McDavid stepped up.
Things worth mentioning…
The refs were once again a main fixture of the game. They called a pretty weak penalty against Oilers’ defenceman Philip Broberg. It’s playoff hockey, and this shouldn’t be called, but the Oilers wasted 44 seconds of the penalty kill until…
Mattias Jankmark was given a two-minute minor for high-sticking. While this was the right call, giving a team a 5 on 3 in the playoffs is almost unheard of. Had the refs made a makeup call after the initial power play was over, I think most of Oilers Nation would be okay with that call. A 5-on-3 power play is significantly more potent than a 5-on-4 power play, and this really sunk the Oilers in this game.
Does Jack Campbell deserve a start? Goaltender Stuart Skinner has been pulled three times in the playoffs. As for backup goaltender Jack Campbell, he has a .956 save percentage in the three games he’s appeared in. Skinner has been… fine, but maybe Campbell deserves a shot in Game 6. After all, it worked for the Florida Panthers, who started Alex Lyon for the first two games of the Boston series, before making the change to Sergi Bobrovsky in Game 4.
Vincent Desharnais deserves some praise. It was a tough eight games or so for the 26-year-old defenseman, but he has really settled down over the past few games. At the end of the first period, he blocked a shot which sent him to the dressing room. He returned, but Desharnais has been solid over the past few games.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has only scored one goal through the first 11 games of the playoffs, but he added two assists on Friday evening. As it stands, he has one goal and eight assists.
Evan Bouchard has proved he’s the first-pairing, right-shot defenceman. If the Oilers lose this round, our favourite team will only need to make one or two upgrades on defence this off-season. The first pairing of Ekholm-Bouchard is a good reason for that.
The Dallas Stars prophecy has come to an end. This is the first time all playoffs that the Oilers have had a different outcome than the Stars had the night before them.
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