Alex Pietrangelo scored his first goal of the post-season to break a tie late in the second period, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 in Game 6 of their second-round series on Thursday night to advance to the Stanley Cup semifinals.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 30 shots and moved into sole possession of fourth place all-time with 89 playoff wins.
Devin Toews, Mikko Rantanen and Andre Burakovsky scored for Colorado. Grubauer made 17 saves.
After firing a team-high 45 shots during the postseason, Pietrangelo’s 46th found the back of the net with 18 seconds left in the second after he gathered a rebound from Alex Tuch’s shot that caromed off the end board, and he sent the puck top shelf to beat Colorado netminder Philipp Grubauer to put Vegas up 4-3.
WATCH | Golden Knights topple Avalanche to advance:
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Vegas defeats Colorado 6-2 to win their second round series in six games. The Golden Knights will face the Canadiens in the next round. 1:02
The third period belonged to Fleury, who stopped 11 shots in the final frame, including a one-timer by Valeri Nichushkin from the bottom of the circle. Fleury lunged across the crease to stymie the attempt with what might have been his biggest save of the game, preserving the 4-3 lead with about 14 minutes left to play and keeping the momentum in Vegas’ favour.
Colorado came out of the opening faceoff looking to silence the sold-out crowd, as the Avalanche took advantage of a turnover by Vegas defenceman Shea Theodore. Colorado speedster Nathan MacKinnon raced into the offensive zone with the puck and fed a streaking Toews, who beat Fleury with a snipe just 23 seconds in.
The crowd was reignited when Holden fired a shot from the point and through Grubauer’s five-hole, tying the game just 52 seconds later.
WE LOVE WINNING SERIES ON HOME ICE 🏰 <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/KnightUp?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#KnightUp</a> <a href=”https://t.co/87UTpsZEqS”>pic.twitter.com/87UTpsZEqS</a>
—@GoldenKnights
Later it was Karlsson creating a turnover and finding Martinez across the zone. After winding up for a shot up top, Martinez opted to send the puck back to Karlsson, who snapped a one-timer between Grubauer’s skate and the post for his third goal and seventh point in the series to give Vegas a 2-1 lead.
After winning a faceoff and shuttling the puck to Theodore, Kolesar positioned himself perfectly to redirect Pietrangelo’s shot from the blue line past Grubauer to put Vegas back on top, 3-2.
Colorado tied the game for the third time when former Knight Pierre-Edouard Bellemare sent a cross-ice pass over the red line for Burakovsky, who skated down in on the right wing and lasered a shot by Fleury on the far side.
WATCH | Longtime TV producer John Shannon discuss replay decisions on violent hits:
With the playoffs already seeing two players taken off the ice on stretchers, longtime producer John Shannon talks to Rob Pizzo about making tough replay decisions on live television. 10:29