Alex Tuch excels as Golden Knights’ ‘X-factor’

Max Pacioretty jokingly referred to Alex Tuch as “the X-factor here” at the Golden Knights’ postgame podium in Edmonton, Alberta. The Chicago Blackhawks probably think that nickname is no laughing matter.

Tuesday showed how dangerous the Knights can be when Tuch is making an impact. The 24-year-old right wing continued his impressive start to the postseason by scoring the series-clinching goal in a 4-3 victory over the Blackhawks.

“He’s impossible to stop when he has that attitude, that attack attitude that I think he’s had the entire series,” Knights coach Pete DeBoer said. “He could have had four or five goals in this series, so it was nice for him to finally bang one in there. But he stuck with it.”

That “attack” mentality showed as soon as Tuch hit the ice for the play he scored on. He hopped over the boards as left wing Jonathan Marchessault was carrying the puck through the neutral zone early in the third period.

Tuch noticed two Blackhawks were going for a change and the other three were watching the puck, so he decided to take off on the back side of the play.

Marchessault fired a perfect pass to lead Tuch into the offensive zone, and Tuch used his speed to get behind Chicago defenseman Adam Boqvist. Tuch drove hard to the net, threw a backhand shot at Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford and put in his own rebound to give the Knights the lead.

It was his fourth goal of the playoffs, tied for the most on the team with right wing Mark Stone and defenseman Shea Theodore. “The X-factor” has been changing games this postseason.

“I was just jumping on the ice, and I had a feeling (Marchessault) was just going to be able to find me and put it to an open area,” Tuch said. “It was really good poise (from him) and a really good play.”

Here are three more takeaways from the win:

1. First line starts cooking

The Knights’ first line hadn’t looked complete in Edmonton. Left wing Pacioretty missed five of the team’s first six games in the bubble. When he did play against the Blackhawks, he was shaking off five months of rust.

That’s partially why he, Stone and center William Karlsson were on the ice for zero five-on-five goals in Games 1, 3 and 4 (Pacioretty missed Game 2).

Things were different Tuesday. The three were dominant, and Pacioretty had his best game of the series. The line scored two goals, and the Knights had a 13-3 edge in scoring chances when it was on the ice.

“This was obviously the best I felt since I came back,” said Pacioretty, who had a goal and an assist for his first two points of the playoffs. “I know I had some work to do after my first three (games) definitely weren’t the best of my career.”

2. Power play strikes

The Knights were one of two teams, along with the Tampa Bay Lightning, without a power-play goal in the first round entering Tuesday. They were 0-for-9 in the first four games of the series.

Then, in the second period, right wing Reilly Smith and defenseman Alec Martinez got the power play on the board. Smith set up Martinez for a one-timer with a pass across the offensive zone, and he didn’t miss.

“It’s something that we work on in practice,” Martinez said. “(We) try to utilize seams and try to be a shooting power play. He just made a good play. It’s pretty tough for a goaltender to get across that quickly, and fortunately I was able to put it in.”

The power-play goal meant the Knights and Blackhawks finished the series even on special teams.

3. Next steps

The second round of the playoffs are tentatively set to begin Tuesday, which means the Knights have time to kill before their next game.

DeBoer said he doesn’t have any plans yet as to how he’s going to fill those days. He’s superstitious about thinking ahead before a series is officially over. But he said he expects the team’s “fun committee” will find ways to keep players occupied.

“From what I understand, there’s going to be some more options for the guys to be able to do a few more things,” DeBoer said. “Maybe outside the bubble, potentially. But we haven’t gotten into any of that yet. We’ll find a way to keep ourselves busy. We’ve got a committee that I’m sure has some things planned for the group to keep us out of our rooms.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.