<i>Edmonton Oilers right wing Connor Brown (28) scores on a breakaway against Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill (33) during the third period of Game 1 of the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at T-Mobile Arena on May 6, 2025. <b>Photo Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images</b></i> [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/c0bba4a1-8d1c-473d-aecf-12edc2ac32db.jpeg] <i>Edmonton Oilers right wing Connor Brown (28) scores on a breakaway against Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill (33) during the third period of Game 1 of the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at T-Mobile Arena on May 6, 2025. <b>Photo Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images</b></i> LAS VEGAS -- The Golden Knights [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/vegas-golden-knights] squandered a first-period, two-goal lead and allowed the Edmonton Oilers [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/edmonton-oilers] to score four unanswered goals and steal a 4-2 road victory and home ice in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Vegas had its three-game playoff win streak snapped, after it overcame a 2-1 series deficit to the Minnesota Wild in the opening round. Mark Stone scored both of Vegas's goals, while Adin Hill stopped 24 of the 28 shots he faced. Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist, while Zach Hyman, Connor Brown and Corey Perry each had goals to lead the Oilers to their fifth straight playoff win while leaving most of an announced gathering of 18,111 in disbelief. Edmonton hasn't lost a game since falling behind the Los Angeles Kings in their opening round series, 2-0. Edmonton's Calvin Pickard stopped 15 shots and improved to 5-0 this postseason. Vegas got the scoring going early when Shea Theodore skated to the top of the slot and blasted a shot that deflected off William Karlsson's stick and then off Stone's skate to make it 1-0 just 2:13 into the game. Stone made it 2-0 midway through the period when he took a pass from Jack Eichel, made a nifty move around a sprawling Corey Perry to the right side and beat Calvin Pickard with a wrister. Perry would cut the lead in half with 4:34 left in the first period, as he grabbed a pass from Connor McDavid on the left side of the crease, skated to the right side and beat Hill with relative ease. It would only take 58 seconds into the third period before the Oilers tied the game 2-all, as Draisaitl knocked the puck in mid-air, off Hill, and into the net. Hyman put the Oilers ahead by one with 3:02 left in the game with a snipe from the top of the right circle, giving Edmonton its first lead of the game. Brown extended the lead to two goals with 1:46 remaining when he took the puck from one end to the other, darted past Shea Theodore and sniped Hill to provide the final margin. "They looked like they did against L.A., the latter part of the series, especially when they got going," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "They elevated their game today, and I don't think we did halfway through the game, I think it's that simple. "They're just better than us." FAST START, SLOW FINISH: After coming out firing to start the game, the Golden Knights seemed to lose their spark late in the first period and certainly over the final 40 minutes. Edmonton outshot Vegas 12-1 in the middle stanza, and got the better of the Knights with high-danger chances, 4-0, per Natural Stat Trick. After 10 shots on goal in the first period, the Knights managed just seven shots over the final two. The Oilers finished the game with an overwhelming edge in high-danger chances, 13-3. "They got some some good O-zone time, obviously," Stone said. "I didn't think we were giving up a ton of the grade-A chances, we were keeping them on the outside, but they got into the game and started feeling good about themselves. We took the penalty early in the second period, got them feeling pretty good about themselves, took another one and we were kind of on our heels a little bit." BATTLE OF DEPTH: With depth being one of Vegas' strengths, being able to roll out four lines, it was Edmonton that showed off its deep forwards when it mattered most. For instance, while the Oilers' second and third lines each scored a goal, Vegas' second line of Brandon Saad, Tomas Hertl and Keegan Kolesar and third line of Ivan Barbashev, Nic Roy and Reilly Smith were outdistanced with high-danger chances, 12-2. "You could almost, on the bench, see that we needed to string some positive shifts together to start the third because we got out of the second," Cassidy said. "They probably felt pretty good about, they're like, 'Hey, we're right there.' Then they get a lucky one to start. So now they're really on. So we needed to build our game from there, better, and get all four lines getting rolling and getting playing. But they did that better than us the second half of the game." SLICK OILERS: McDavid continues to lead all Oilers in career postseason scoring against the Golden Knights with 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in seven games. Draisaitl (7 goals, 2 assists) and Evan Bouchard (2 goals, 7 assists) increased their total to nine points in seven career postseason games against the Knights, while Hyman (2 goals, 6 assists) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1 goal, 7 assists) increased their career total to eight points, also in seven career postseason games against Vegas. "There's other areas of the game that we didn't defend hard at, we got beat one-on-one a number of times, and our rush coverage at times, their late guys got good looks," Cassidy said. "Some of that is a product of their top-end guys can back you off. And we saw that on the second goal. They got a lucky bounce, but that's how it started, they back you off with McDavid's speed, and we weren't able to put out a fire there." Stay updated with the most interesting Golden Knights stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw/sections/CAQqEAgAKgcICjCvqtILMO7F6QMwiNvfCA?hl=en-CA&gl=CA&ceid=CA%3Aen] to never miss a story.
