Marchessault’s hat trick powers Knights to series-tying victory

The hats started to fly, and Jonathan Marchessault waved his arms asking for more.

The crowd at T-Mobile Arena obliged, littering the ice in celebration of the Golden Knights forward’s third goal Sunday.

“We proved we can play with the best team in the league,” Marchessault said. “We’re on a mission right now.”

Boosted by Marchessault’s hat trick, the Knights evened the West Division final with a convincing 5-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 4.

The best-of-seven series shifts to Denver for Game 5 on Tuesday after the Knights held serve at home.

Max Pacioretty and Patrick Brown also had goals for the Knights, who scored five unanswered after falling behind early in the first period.

“I think there was a lot of belief after that second game regardless of what the series said,” Pacioretty said. “We knew that when we came home that we were going to be able to continue how we played after that second game and hopefully use some momentum from our fans.”

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar ripped his team after a lackluster effort in Game 3, and Colorado couldn’t counter the Knights’ game plan to clog the neutral zone and slow the top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog.

The Knights nearly doubled the Avalanche in shots on goal (35-18) on Sunday and have outshot Colorado 119-63 since being blown out in Game 1.

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury earned his 87th career postseason victory, one shy of tying Billy Smith and Ed Belfour for fourth place on the all-time list.

“We know there’s still a lot of hill to climb, but really proud of how we responded to how this series started,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “That Game 1 was a tough turnaround. We didn’t roll over at that point in time. We knew we could play better and have played really well since then.”

Marchessault put the Knights ahead 3-1 with a one-timer from the left circle on a second-period power play, marking the first time Colorado trailed by more than one goal since May 3.

He finished the hat trick at 6:01 of the third period, depositing a pass from Reilly Smith to set the announced crowd of 18,081 into a frenzy.

Marchessault joined Mattias Janmark and Mark Stone as the only players with postseason hat tricks in franchise history.

William Karlsson finished with three assists. The Misfit Line of Marchessault, Smith and Karlsson has produced seven of the team’s 11 goals in the series.

“I remember during the season them having some moments where they always play well, they always play hard, they’re always defensively responsible, but the puck wasn’t going in at different points for them,” DeBoer said. “They’ve stuck with it, and they’ve gotten hot at the right time. They look unstoppable right now.”

The Knights welcomed back defenseman Brayden McNabb from COVID protocol and forward Ryan Reaves after his two-game suspension and came out energized in the first period.

Colorado took the lead 1:50 in after Fleury left a rebound in the crease and Brandon Saad knocked in the loose puck for his sixth goal in the past seven games.

Despite falling behind, the Knights continued to push the pace and took advantage of a dreadful turnover by Avalanche defenseman Patrik Nemeth to tie the score at 7:07.

Smith was the recipient of Nemeth’s miscue, and his backhand went off the crossbar. Colorado cleared the puck, but goalie Philipp Grubauer appeared to believe it was a goal and casually returned to his crease.

Karlsson tracked down the puck and centered for Marchessault, who deflected in his second goal in two games and third of the postseason.

“Honestly, I was kind of (celebrating), too, and then I realized it was not a goal,” Karlsson said. “I went to the puck and just tried to shovel it back into the net. Marchessault was there. It was kind of bizarre situation, but you just have to play until the whistle is blown, I guess.”

Pacioretty scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period when he snapped a shot over the shoulder of Grubauer during a three-on-two rush. It was Pacioretty’s third game-winning goal of the postseason and extended his point streak to five games.

“We’re sticking to our structure. As you can see, it’s frustrating for teams to play against,” Pacioretty said. “The key now is to be focused each and every game here the entire stretch to make sure we keep that system going in the right direction.”

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