Jets drop Game Two, series tied heading to Vegas

WINNIPEG - Blake Wheeler believed Game Two came down to a three-minute span in the first period.
In the first 10 minutes, the Jets had chances. Nikolaj Ehlers hit the post. Mark Scheifele's backhand poke on a partial break sat inches from the goal line. In total, the Jets held a 10-3 edge in shots on goal.
But two quick goals from the Vegas Golden Knights in a 3:59 span put the Jets in a hole they couldn't climb out of, and Vegas left Bell MTS Place with a 3-1 win.

Kyle Connor's power play goal in the third cut the deficit to 2-1, but Jonathan Marchessault's second of the night less than 90 seconds later restored the two-goal lead.
The best-of-seven series is now tied at one apiece.
"They're opportunistic in the same way we can be," said Jacob Trouba of the Golden Knights. "You give them a little light or a little day, they're going to take advantage of it. It doesn't matter which line, each line brings something a little different to the table, and they can all rattle around in that offensive zone."
Vegas would get on the board first, when Tomas Tatar - playing in his first game of the series, and fifth of the playoffs - took a pass from Shea Theodore just outside the crease on Connor Hellebuyck's glove side. Tatar hit the side of the net with his shot, but the puck bounced off the end boards, and Tatar quickly tucked it inside the post before Hellebuyck could get back in position.

Marchessault would take advantage of a neutral zone turnover late in the first, and break in all alone on Hellebuyck, beating the Jets goaltender through the five hole with a late move to the backhand.
"We didn't do a whole lot of clean things with the puck. But they were good. They were on the puck and didn't make it easy," said head coach Paul Maurice.
"We got a couple posts on us, and we were not right. We didn't hold. But it didn't cost us. There's a 10-minute block there that we're not going to like too much tomorrow.
"We got out of our routes and out of our patience at that point."

It would take until the third period, but the Jets would cut into the Vegas lead. Connor's third of the postseason came on the power play, when his shot squeaked through Marc-Andre Fleury on the short side.
But just 1:28 later, Marchessault would restore the lead. A pinch in the neutral zone led to an odd-man rush toward the Jets net. Line mate Reilly Smith hit him with a pass just out of the reach of a diving Josh Morrissey, and Marchessault again went to his backhand, and beat Hellebuyck.

"I'd have to see it again, but usually when our D-men pinch, they usually have the green light," said Stastny. "Usually our forwards back them up. When you're pressing to try and get the goal, sometimes you get a bit ahead of yourself.
"When we're playing our game, when we're down a goal or two goals we don't get out of our game. When we get down a goal or two, and we don't play well, all of a sudden we get out of our game. We try to do too much, we turn the puck over too much in the neutral zone, and that feeds their transition game."

The Jets would press late, but Vegas would hold the home side off the scoreboard the rest of the way.
Now the series shifts to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights have won four of the five games they've played there in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But the Jets remain confident, especially after earning back-to-back road wins in the Second Round over the Nashville Predators.
"It's a series. I don't think anybody is panicking. We've been here before," said Trouba. "It's a long series. We're going to go to Vegas. We like our road game. We like where it was in the Nashville series, and we're going to try and bring the same effort."