Marchessault hat trick helps Golden Knights eliminate Oilers in Game 6

EDMONTON -- Jonathan Marchessault scored a natural hat trick in the second period, and the Vegas Golden Knights won the Western Conference Second Round with a 5-2 victory against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 at Rogers Place on Sunday.

Vegas advanced to the Western Conference Final to face either the Dallas Stars or Seattle Kraken, who will play Game 7 of their best-of-7 series in Dallas on Monday.

"We're definitely going to enjoy it tonight, but we're just halfway done," Marchessault said. "Every night everybody out here is just trying to play the right way and sometimes we get rewarded. One night, it's one guy. One night, it's another one. And that's the mentality we have this year, just next man in and keep it going."

Adin Hill made 39 saves, Reilly Smith had a goal and an assist, and Ivan Barbashev had two assists for the Golden Knights, who are the No. 1 seed from the West. Vegas advanced to the third round of the postseason for the fourth time in its six seasons.

Hill has started the past three games, winning two, after Laurent Brossoit left with a lower-body injury in Game 3.

"He was awesome. I can't give 'Hilly' enough credit, obviously," Golden Knights center Jack Eichel said. "'L.B.' goes down early in the series, and he steps in ready to rock and he played fantastic for us.

"You need your goalie to be good, and I can't say enough good things about him."

Connor McDavid and Warren Foegele scored for the Oilers, the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Division. Stuart Skinner made 13 saves on 17 shots before being replaced by Jack Campbell for the second game in a row and third time in the series. Campbell made four saves after entering to start the third period.

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"It hurts," said Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, who did not have a point and was minus-4. "It's tough to find words right now. Obviously, when you start a season, we're in it to win it and we're at that stage. If you don't complete that, then it feels like a failure or a wasted year almost. It hurts.

"We couldn't create enough 5-on-5, but we scored two 5-on-5 tonight and sometimes that's got to be enough. I have to take a lot of ownership myself, I wasn't good tonight. It's always tough. Guys play me hard, I know that, but I have to find a way to be better."

Vegas took a 1-0 lead for the first time in the series when Smith scored 24 seconds into the first period. Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm dug the puck out of the corner and sent it right to Smith for a clear shot from the slot that beat Skinner low to the glove side.

McDavid tied it 1-1 31 seconds later when he took a pass from Brett Kulak and shot from the right face-off dot to the far post past the outstretched pad of Hill at 55 seconds.

Foegele put the Oilers ahead 2-1 at 2:43, taking a Derek Ryan pass from behind the net and converting on a one-timer in front, but they wouldn't score again.

"Obviously our group is very disappointed for coming up short of our goal, which was to push this series to seven games," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "The effort was there from our players, they pushed until the very end and they tried to find the equalizers. In the end, it didn't turn our way, but I can't fault the effort from our players, but there were some points in our game where we felt we could have been better."

Vegas tied it 2-2 at 4:26 of the second when Barbashev one-timed the puck across the crease to Marchessault, who put it past a diving Skinner from the right side of the net.

Marchessault's second goal gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead at 7:44. A point shot from Alec Martinez hit Skinner in the right shoulder before bouncing up and landing behind the goalie in the crease for an easy tap-in.

Marchessault completed the hat trick and pushed the lead to 4-2 at 18:36, scoring on a wrist shot from the left circle.

"They did a lot of good things, they shut it down, their third period was clinical," said McDavid, the Oilers captain. "We still had our looks and didn't find a way to get one past them."

William Karlsson scored into an empty net at 19:21 for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: Marchessault's natural hat trick was the first in Vegas postseason history. … The Golden Knights and Oilers combined for the second-fastest two goals by both teams to begin a playoff game. The Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks scored in the first 52 seconds in Game 2 of the 1993 Smythe Division Final. … Road teams have eight of the 11 series-ending wins in the playoffs this season.