FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Jets - Game 4 - 2023

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Jets – Game 4 – 2023

Franchise Sports Media

Vegas Golden Knights (3-1) vs Winnipeg Jets (1-3)

The Golden Knights hang on to win 4-2 and take a 3-1 series lead over the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It is game 4 of the Golden Knights vs Jets series. 

The Vegas Golden Knights, so far in this first-round series, have held on in close situations. After an overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets in game 3, game 4 was no different as Vegas hanged on to win 4-2 to lead the series 3-1 over the Jets at the Canada Life Centre.

The Golden Knights are now in the driver’s seat to eliminate Winnipeg in Game 5 of the best-of-seven series on Thursday. Teams that take a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series hold a series record of 299-31.

“At the end of the day, no panic, just take care of business,” Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Play the right way and end up getting the win. That’s what we came here for.”

Brent Howden scored twice, and William Karlsson scored as well. Vegas also had help from Chandler Stephenson and Shae Theodore, each with two assists. Vegas goaltender Laurent Brossoit finished the night with 24 saves.

“Feels great, especially a big swing game like the fourth game usually is, and just the fashion that we did it in,” Brossoit said. “Everyone was playing well tonight. All four lines were going, and all ‘D’ pairings were going. We didn’t really give them anything. They’re dealing with some injuries, but we’ve got a veteran group that didn’t get complacent, and we took it to them.”

Blake Wheeler and Pierre-Luc Dubois each scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck finished the night with 26 saves

“We have two options,” Dubois said. “We can either feel bad for ourselves, or we can have a positive mindset. We won one in Vegas before. We feel like we have the recipe to do it again.”

The Jets lost more than the game as they suffered another heartbreaking injury as Mark Scheifele left the game with an upper-body injury early in the first period. Scheifele led the Winnipeg Jets in goals in the regular season with a career-best 42. He had one goal in the playoffs so far.

“Our team played very hard tonight. We adjusted, and we’ve been through this before early in the year when we had five or six guys out, key guys out. And now we’re faced with it again,” Dubois added. And the difference now, obviously, is you’re in the playoffs, and you’re playing an excellent hockey club every night. And they are a good hockey club. So are we. We’ll find a way. We fought through this before. Are we missing some key guys? Yes. We’ll find a way to win that game on Thursday.”

The Jets had taken the lead 1-0 after a goal from Blake Wheeler before Scheifele left the game.

“It’s unfortunate, obviously, to lose [Scheifele], a guy we really rely on,” Wheeler said. “The guys battled extremely hard. We just couldn’t get a bounce 5-on-5… We just couldn’t get the extra one when we needed it.”

End of the first period in the Golden Knights vs Jets series

The Golden Knights tied the game 1-1 after a goal from Brent Howden scoring off his own rebound.   

The start of periods 2 and 3 in the Golden Knights vs Jets series.

William Karlsson scored right after the power play expired when Jonathan Marchessault’s shot was redirected by Hellebuyck’s skate for a 2-1 lead. 

The 2-1 lead for Vegas was not enough. Just 47 seconds later, Ivan Barbashev scored after tipping in Shae Theodore’s shot from the slot to extend the lead to 3-1 for the Golden Knights.

The Jets were not giving up without a fight despite losing Scheifele. The Jets came to cut the score deficit to one goal, 3-2, after Dubois scored on a power play goal.

“That was a weird one,” Dubois said. “It got us back within one. When you’re down two or three, you can’t be thinking about scoring three goals or two goals, you got to be thinking of scoring one at a time, and that gave us an opportunity to get within one.” 

The Jets, down a goal, looked to tie the game just like in game 3, but it was not the case when Brent Howden scored his second goal of the night, an empty net goal to put the game away 4-2.

“Play the right way and end up getting the win. That’s what we came here for. I think we’re the better team, but usually, when you watch the game, you can get a better feel for it, but I never felt we were in trouble tonight.” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said.

The final score in game 4 of the Golden Knights vs Jets series was 4-2, Vegas.

On Thursday, the Golden Knights will play against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 5 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at T-Mobile Arena. The puck drops at 7:00 PM. The game can be seen on AT&T SportsNet (channel 313 on Cox Cable) and ESPN 2(channel eight on Cox Cable) or heard on 98.9 FM, FOX Sports Las Vegas 1340 AM.