SALT LAKE CITY — John Tortorella was already gone and celebrating the Vegas Golden Knights’ Game 4 overtime victory when the goal was overturned.
Seconds after Pavel Dorofeyev tucked home a rebound midway through overtime against the Utah Mammoth on Monday night, then raised his arms in celebration as he fell to the ice, the head coach had high-tailed it off the bench, more than ready to get the win in the books and head home.
“I thought we won it the first time,” Tortorella said post-game of the would-be OT winner, which was called back after a review revealed the play was offside. “I was in the coaches’ room, pretty much celebrating. I was yelled back out (to the ice) that we weren’t sure (if the goal counted), and so that was a little weird for me.”
Mammoth fans, too, were filing out of Delta Center — though, notably, a lot less celebratory in tone than Tortorella — when officials told everyone to hold on.
The home crowd roared when replay showed Jack Eichel appeared to have been offside on the play. They erupted when officials agreed.
But the hope delivered by the overturned goal was snuffed soon after when Shea Theodore potted the actual game-winner in the final minute of overtime to seal Vegas’ 5-4 series-tying victory.
The timing of Theodore’s goal couldn’t have been better for the Golden Knights, and not just because it meant narrowly avoiding a second overtime period — though, that was certainly part of it.
“I think especially close to the end of the first overtime, you don’t really wanna go to a second. But it’s just a good feeling,” Theodore said of his game-winner. “Obviously, it sucks having that (first) one called back, but we kept our foot on the gas. Scoring an OT winner is pretty special.”
The goal also brought a massive confidence boost for a team coming off back-to-back losses; a team that almost dropped a third after giving up a 3-0 Game 4 lead Monday night; a team that, despite its star power and finely honed playoff expertise, needed a reminder of who it is and what it’s capable of.
Two days prior, during an off-day media availability on Saturday, Tortorella called on his stars to step up.
“We need to score,” Tortorella said, one day after the Golden Knights outshot Utah by 20 but lost by two. “We need some of our guys to score, make a big play at a big time.”
Dorofeyev, the team’s regular-season goals leader, needed just 73 seconds of Game 4 action to prove to his coach he was listening. Dorofeyev was held without a point through the first three games, travelling up and down the lineup because of it, and landed back on the top line and was rewarded with a goal. Brett Howden scored his first two goals of this series, including the game-tying marker to send Monday’s matchup to overtime. Cole Smith registered his first career playoff goal. Eichel tallied three assists, including a stunning no-look saucer to tee up Theodore’s winner — the defenceman’s first goal of these playoffs. Mitch Marner remained quiet statistically, assisting on Howden’s first goal, but brought a spark with his playmaking throughout the game.
Asked post-game about the roller-coaster that came with the disallowed OT goal, Marner praised his team’s ability to quickly refocus.
“I think that’s maybe a first for me, just everyone jumping on the ice and then obviously the offside call,” said Marner. “The building got pretty rocking there, and there was the sigh of relief for their fanbase and for them. For us, I think we just realized that we did a lot of good things throughout that period that gave us that look and as soon as we got back to the bench, it was the same idea — just trying to do the same things we did that got us that opportunity that we scored on. I thought we did that very well.”
Of course, Vegas wasn’t the only team that responded Monday. The Mammoth did, too. Repeatedly. A sluggish first frame, which saw them give up a short-handed goal to Howden to go down 2-0, could’ve buried them. Smith’s second-period marker threatened to derail things further. But things can change in a hurry, and they did on Monday night. Twenty-nine seconds after Nick Schmaltz got the Mammoth on the board with a snap shot, defenceman Ian Cole buried a slapper to suddenly and dramatically shift the momentum. Michael Carcone, who missed a wide-open net on the power play earlier in the game, made good on a slap shot early in the third to tie things up, and captain Clayton Keller took the lead. It was the first goal of these playoffs for all four Mammoth goal-scorers, and the first of Schmaltz’s playoff career.
The entire game was a series of questions asked, and answered; challenges issued, and accepted; and playoff identities fought for, and forged.
If there’s a victory to be found within this loss for the Mammoth, it’s that resilience. It’s also the strength of the club’s penalty kill yet again stepping up. They foiled the Golden Knights on all four attempts Monday night, including a particularly tense two minutes in overtime. Utah has now successfully killed 11 straight penalties in this series.
If only the Utah power play could find the same kind of juice. While not as glaring an issue as that of the Golden Knights, the Mammoth struggled mightily with the man advantage on Monday night. They looked out of sync and disjointed, struggling to hit their stride on zone entries and even giving up a short-handed goal in the first period.
“I’m proud of the way our guys responded to adversity,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny. “That was a hard-fought game. We know how good they can be, and I think we respond well after the second half.”
(And for the record, Tourigny knew the would-be OT winner was offside. He wasn’t going anywhere.)
This game was a character-builder for both sides, and perhaps a sign of things to come as we now enter best-of-three territory with the series shifting back to Vegas.
“Going down in the third period, they’re getting scored on twice and coming back and winning, that that’s something we can lean on as we keep on moving through these games,” said Tortorella.
The longtime bench boss, still new to the club, is clearly enjoying the process of what’s essentially been a crash course in Golden Knights hockey. He liked what he saw Monday night.
“It’s a good one. We put in our pocket, we get on the plane, and just get ready for our next game,” said Tortorella. “We can’t get too high. Want ’em to enjoy it for a few minutes here, but then we get back to work tomorrow and get ready for Game 5.”