Shea Theodore Lifts Vegas Knights Past Mammoth 5-4 in OT
The vegas knights beat the Utah Mammoth 5-4 in overtime in Game 4 at the Delta Center on Monday night, and Shea Theodore ended a wild night after an apparent Utah winner was taken off the board for offside. The victory tied the series 2-2 and gave Vegas back home-ice advantage after Utah had taken the previous two games.
Delta Center swing
Vegas looked in control early, building a 3-0 lead in the second period. Utah answered fast. Nick Schmaltz and Ian Cole scored 29 seconds apart, and the game changed again before the second intermission.
Utah then flipped the score in the first five minutes of the third period. Michael Carcone and Clayton Keller each scored, putting the Mammoth ahead and putting Vegas in a hole that had been hard to imagine after the early three-goal cushion.
Howden forces overtime
Brett Howden pulled the Knights level with his second goal of the game, sending the matchup to overtime. The pace stayed frantic, with chances coming at both ends and the score still tight enough that one bounce could decide it.
Pavel Dorofeyev appeared to win it midway through overtime, but the goal was reviewed for offside. Jack Eichel was offside on the entry by only millimeters, and only a single frame showed him offside. Cole Smith said, “We didn’t know” when the play was under review, then added, “I was right on the blue line, actually, when it went by. It looked a lit.”
Theodore ends it
Theodore’s winner finished the comeback and closed out the overtime sequence. Cole Smith called the game one of heavy swings, saying, “There are going to be huge ebbs and flows” and, “It’s playoff hockey. Especially in an away environment. The message was just stick together and play our game. Everybody stuck together.”
Utah had entered Game 4 with a 2-1 series lead after winning the previous two games, and the Mammoth were trying to move one win from taking a 3-1 lead that historically goes to a series win 91 percent of the time. Instead, the series heads back to even, with Vegas reclaiming the edge it needed after the opening three games.
