Chandler Stephenson ties Golden Knights playoff record in victory

Series at a glance

Knights win 4-1

■ Game 1 — Jets 5, Golden Knights 1

■ Game 2 — Golden Knights 5, Jets 2

■ Game 3 — Golden Knights 5, Jets 4 (2OT)

■ Game 4 — Golden Knights 4, Jets 2

■ Game 5 — Golden Knights 4, Jets 1

RJ’s three stars

3. Knights goaltender Laurent Brossoit — He lost the shutout bid with 5:38 remaining but polished off his former club with 30 saves. Brossoit’s best stop came with 11:44 left in the second period when he turned aside Brenden Dillon’s initial shot and slid back to deny Adam Lowry on the rebound.

2. Knights forward Chandler Stephenson — His opening goal 50 seconds into the game was the third-fastest in Knights postseason history and set the tone. He added a power-play goal in the second period and had two shots at an empty net for the hat trick but couldn’t convert.

1. Knights forward Mark Stone — The captain finished with three points and was the engine that drove the offensive attack. His pass to Stephenson for the opening goal was a thing of beauty, and his goal in the second period was the catalyst for a three-goal outburst in a span of 7:55 that iced the series.

Key play

Stone’s goal in the second period.

If there was any wind left in Winnipeg’s sails following the first period, it vanished 42 seconds into the second period when Stone put the Knights ahead 2-0.

After Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo pinched in from the right point to keep the puck in the zone, Stone tipped it in the air to himself, gloved it down and fired a shot from the middle of the slot that beat Hellebuyck to the glove side.

Stone had three goals in the series, and this was the fifth time in his career with the Knights that he’s scored in the opening minute of a period during the playoffs. According to NHL public relations, no other Knights skater has done it more than once.

Key stat

4 — Consecutive multipoint games by Stephenson.

He joins Max Pacioretty as the only player in franchise history with a streak of four or more multipoint games in the playoffs. Pacioretty had four straight multipoint outings in 2019.

Ehlers in, Scheifele out for Winnipeg

Winnipeg winger Nikolaj Ehlers made his series debut in Game 5 after being listed as a game-time decision. Ehlers had been out since he sustained an upper-body injury April 11.

Ehlers posted 38 points (12 goals, 26 assists) in 45 regular-season games.

His return was nearly cut short when Ehlers blocked a shot by Knights defenseman Nic Hague and had to be helped to the bench 4:17 into the first period.

Winnipeg played without forward Mark Scheifele, who had a team-leading 42 goals in the regular season. Scheifele departed in the first period of Monday’s Game 4 with an upper-body injury.

The Jets were already missing top defenseman Josh Morrissey, who left with a lower-body injury in the first period of Game 3 and was ruled out for the remainder of the series. Forward Cole Perfetti has not played since Feb. 19 because of an upper-body injury, and backup goaltender David Rittich was unavailable for Game 5 with a lower-body injury.

Knights quotable

“Obviously if a series has to go seven games and you have to win in seven, that’s what you’ve got to do. But we just stuck together, we did the right things, played the right way. And obviously our offensive side of the game took over, which was good to see.”— Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud.

Jets quotable

“We’ve got to push back. There’s got to be a pushback. There’s got to be pride. You’ve got to be able to push back when things aren’t going your way. We had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours tonight. They deserved to win. They were the better team in the regular season, they were the better team in this series.” — Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.