The Vegas Golden Knights mounted a three-goal comeback and Tomas Hertl scored the game-winner, taking a 3-0 series lead over the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final. Here's what Head Coach John Tortorella and a few Golden Knights had to say following the Game 3 win.
Head Coach John Tortorella on the team’s fearless approach…
This team, in the short time I've been with them, has shown me nothing but that. They're not afraid. It's something we've tried to stress; don't be afraid to make a mistake. They're not afraid of any of that. I think they just have an uncanny ability just to stay together, and that comes through the leadership group in there, the veteran guys in there. It's such an important thing this time of year.
Tortorella on the play of Kaedan Korczak and Dylan Coghlan…
Korczak, he stands in there, I think it was on Keegan Kolesar’s goal to keep us alive. His skating is a big key. His skating is such a strength of his against a really fast team. So, high marks for him in stepping into the speed of this series. I thought Coghlan made a great play on [Hertl’s] goal, just not panicking with the puck, where a lot of guys would be flipping that puck out of the end zone. Not panicking, and then Korczak makes a great pass for a little one-touch play. It’s really good stuff.
Mitch Marner on the second-period goal that sparked the comeback…
The start of the second, we get that power play chance and we go down and score, which is huge. Great play by [Pavel Dorofeyev] to find [Tomas Hertl], then [Hertl], great play to me. Then I was lucky enough to find Stoney going back door. I think from that point on, we just kind of started rolling. The confidence started going a little bit, everyone started feeling a little better about themselves. We’re a team that doesn't have any quit in them. So, we want to make sure every game, regardless of score, we're fighting and we're trying to come back and claw into it.
Marner on Mark Stone’s return to the lineup…
It’s huge. Obviously, he does a lot for our team on the ice and off the ice. Just his leadership, the intensity he brings throughout a game, just how good he is when he's out there just to break up play and make those little five-foot plays that not a lot of people can really make in this league. It's very impressive. And then from that point on, just finding quiet ice where he can work his magic as well. He had a couple of great looks here in the first, and then in the second, he finds a little hole there for me to find him. And usually, that's always going in. So, it's big to have 61 back. It's always great to have him in the locker room.
Marner on the team’s ability to claw back in games throughout the year…
I think we obviously have an older group as well that just stays patient and stays calm. We don't turn on each other, we don't get mad at each other. We know everyone's trying to do their best out there every single shift. That was the talk throughout that intermission – just keep doing what we're doing. We're doing right things. We're getting scoring chances. We're getting looks. If we keep doing that, we'll get rewarded eventually. I think we did that going into the second and then throughout the second. And we got rewarded for it.
William Karlsson on Marner’s impact…
[Marner] continues to be dangerous out there every time he hits the ice. He’s definitely a leader out there and he's helping us a ton.
Tomas Hertl on the no-quit mentality in the room…
We've been down [in games] many times all season long, and we never quit. We’ve come back so many times. I think after the first, even when we were down 3-0, we knew we can do it because we're a veteran team and we have great players. Obviously, after we gave up the shorthanded goal at the end of the first, it was a great start [to the second period]. [Stone] scored right away and after [Karlsson’s] goal, we kind of put them on their heels. Put a lot of doubt in their heads because they know they need this win tonight. We just started playing better, a little smarter, more aggressive, and scored a couple of key goals to get it done.
Hertl on his game winner…
It was a great play, starting with [Korczak], I just kind of got up to speed. [Korczak] made a great play to [Stone], and [Stone] to me. And I kind of had a lot of speed, and I just try to make a move and quick backhand. I got pretty good on it. So, it was quick enough and just a big goal. Obviously, I was really happy about it. It's always nice to score goals, help the team with the goals. But the only thing that matters is just, we won the game. This team, nobody looks who's scoring that night, who got the point. We just care about winning the games and that's why this room is so much fun to play with. I think that's why we come back, because we have belief in every single guy and [Carter Hart] keeps making huge saves for us.
Mark Stone on his power-play goal to get Vegas on the board…
Tomas [Hertl] draws a penalty. We've got a little momentum, and we have a huge opportunity to start the period to come out and execute. And we did. We executed on the power play, which kind of gets the bench alive, gets the building going. So, got the building into it, and [Karlsson] gets going right away, gets another one. When you can get the fans going, you feed off it. You get the momentum, and that was it.
Stone on the influence of a veteran group…
Throughout this 82-game season, we put ourselves in some pretty tough spots that we were able to dig ourselves out of. It's not ideal to get down 3-0 early on, but we’ve been through that this year, and I think we could really rely on the games where we were able to come back. We didn't change a ton. We just had to get back to the way we were playing; smart hockey, winning board battles, the little things. I think we just got back to our game, keeping it simple, forcing some mistakes, and that's what got us back in the game.
