3 takeaways from Knights’ Game 3 win: Mark Stone leaves with injury
Here are three takeaways from the Golden Knights’ 4-3 win over the Oilers in Game 3 of their second-round series Saturday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta:
1. Costly victory
The Knights won the game, but might have lost their captain.
Right wing Mark Stone did not play a shift in the final 6:20 of the first period and was ruled out by the team after the first intermission with an upper-body injury.
Update: Mark Stone will not return to tonight's game due to an upper-body injury.
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 11, 2025
His status for the rest of the series could be a massive storyline.
Mark Stone will not return to Game 3 game due to an upper-body injury pic.twitter.com/2r5cQJW451
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 11, 2025
“You’ve seen a lot of different combinations, and you will the rest of the night,” coach Bruce Cassidy said during a second-period interview on the live Turner Sports TV broadcast. “Don’t bother trying to write them down.
“He’s a big part of our power play and a big part of our kill, too. But you have to make due.”
Cassidy said after the game that Stone was considered day to day and has not been ruled out for Monday’s Game 4 in Edmonton. He expects to know more about Stone’s status Sunday.
“We managed quite well,” Cassidy said. “It seemed the guys wanted to pick him up. What it does is allow other players like a Reilly Smith to get more opportunity, and he took advantage of it.”
Cassidy credited everyone on the bench with communicating well in a loud building to make sure there were no line-change errors with several players taking shifts in different spots as the Knights played down a forward for more than two periods.
“We’d like to have Mark back, obviously,” Cassidy said. “Hopefully it’s nothing serious. He’s a big part of our team. But guys have to know they have to dig in. Every team misses guys this part of the year.”
Stone’s return would be a huge lift for the team. He had 67 points in 66 games in the regular season, and eight points in eight postseason games entering Saturday game.
The 32-year-old forward also had two assists on the power play in Game 2, as he provided a dangerous net-side presence. That unit wasn’t as effective in Game 3, failing to score a goal on either of its opportunities.
2. Knights turn the tables
The Oilers had won six straight games in the postseason in which they had trailed, including the first two games against the Knights.
But they weren’t quite as effective playing with the lead.
After jumping to an early 2-0 lead, the Oilers seemed to have trouble finding another gear the way they had when they were trying to come from behind.
The energy in the building and on the ice weren’t the same, as the Knights quieted the crowd with three consecutive goals.
It took until the Knights had a 3-2 lead late for the Oilers to turn up the intensity. They found a tying goal, but watched in disbelief as Reilly Smith won the game in the final second with one of the most stunning goals in franchise history.
It was the third game-winning goal at 19:59 of the third period in playoff history, and the Knights’ win meant teams trying to go up 3-0 this postseason are 1-7 in Game 3s.
The victory ended Edmonton’s record six-game winning streak in which it had trailed in every game.
It was also a great sign for Smith, who had struggled through the first two games before scoring twice Saturday.
Goaltender Adin Hill also got some redemption after he was clearly outplayed by Edmonton’s Calvin Pickard in Game 2. The Oilers went back to Stuart Skinner on Saturday after Pickard suffered an injury, and Skinner fell to 0-3 this postseason while Pickard is 6-0.
Hill stopped 17 of 20 shots, making several key stops.
3. Surprise additions
The Knights had two players in the lineup who felt like long shots to play when they boarded the plane for Edmonton on Friday.
Both of them made positive contributions.
Forward Nicolas Roy scored the first goal for the Knights late in the first period to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Roy was called for a five-minute major penalty for a cross check during overtime of Thursday’s Game 2 loss and faced a disciplinary hearing with the league Friday.
That usually signals a suspension, but Roy’s lack of disciplinary history was a major factor in him only being issued a fine. He had never been called for a cross-checking minor in his career before Thursday.
Defenseman Brayden McNabb appeared to suffer an upper-body injury when he was tripped and pushed into the boards 17 seconds before Edmonton scored the game-winner in Game 2. No penalty was called on the play, a source of controversy for the past 48 hours.
Cassidy was noncommittal on McNabb’s status during media availability before the team left for Canada, and he didn’t participate in Saturday’s morning skate.
But McNabb was a surprise entrant in the lineup and gave the team his usual steady minutes, playing 19:39 and recording three hits and three blocked shots. McNabb’s skate did deflect Connor McDavid’s pass into the Knights’ net for the game-tying goal late in regulation.
Cassidy said after the game that he decided not to put McNabb on the ice for the morning skate because he didn’t want him to exert unnecessary energy.
That gave McNabb about seven extra hours before taking warmups. Cassidy said McNabb was medically cleared, and the team let him decide whether to play.
“He came in and said he was ready to go, so he was in the lineup,” Cassidy said. “We’ll see if there’s residual effect from tonight.”
The Knights also got leading goal scorer Pavel Dorofeyev back for Saturday’s game, but were without left wing Brandon Saad, who is day to day with an undisclosed ailment.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.