By Michael Russo, Jesse Granger and Joe Smith
LAS VEGAS – Brett Howden’s career season just keeps getting better.
The Vegas forward roofed a one-timer from the front of the Minnesota Wild net to give the Golden Knights a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 5 of the first-round series on Tuesday night.
Vegas’ fourth line controlled the puck in the Minnesota zone, then Tanner Pearson found Howden all alone in front. Howden made no mistake, rifling the shot into the top right corner of the net to give Vegas a 3-2 series lead. Howden scored a career-best 40 points in the regular season.
In a shocking turn of events, after Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson played a fantastic two periods, original Golden Knights goalie and Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury took over in the third period because Gustavsson was sick. Fleury, who is retiring after this season, had not appeared in a game for two weeks, since he stepped in during overtime of the Wild’s season finale.
The Wild did a tremendous job protecting Fleury in the third period, only allowing three shots — and not their first until 13:43 into the period. But in overtime, they left Howden wide open in front of the net. Fleury finished with six saves.
Matt Boldy had tied the game 2-2 less than four minutes into the third period, and the Wild thought they had scored the potential game-winner with 1:15 left in regulation, after Ryan Hartman powered his way to the net for a goal. But after two reviews, the play was ruled offside.
Kirill Kaprizov scored a first-period power-play goal for the Wild to tie the game 1-1, just 13 seconds after his giveaway led to William Karlsson’s short-handed goal. Jack Eichel, who had a quiet first four games but started to gain steam in Game 4, recorded two assists in the first period — on William Karlsson’s short-handed goal and Mark Stone’s go-ahead goal. It was Eichel’s sixth playoff period with multiple points, which tied Jonathan Marchessault for the second-most by a Golden Knights skater, behind Stone (seven).
This was the seventh time the Wild were in a 2-2 series. In five of the previous six, the Game 5 winner went on to win the series. The Wild are now 1-6 all-time in Game 5s.
When a best-of-seven playoff round is tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner has gone on to win the series 79 percent of the time (233-62). Game 6 will be Thursday in Minnesota.
Hartman’s would-be game-winner called back after two reviews
Hartman thought he won the game for Minnesota late in regulation, scoring on a drive to the net in transition, but it was eventually ruled no-goal after two different reviews.
First, the play was reviewed by officials to determine if Hartman had kicked the puck into the net, but they determined it bounced off his leg without a kicking motion, so it was a good goal. Seconds later, Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy challenged the play for offside, and after a second review, it was determined Minnesota forward Gustav Nyquist entered the offensive zone just ahead of the puck, and the goal was taken off the board.
The last-minute play, and ensuing reviews, sent the sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Arena on an emotional roller coaster, ending with a deafening roar when it was ultimately ruled a no-goal.
Ryan Hartman with the go-ahead goal– reviewed for a kicking motion (goal)
– challenged for offside (no goal)
second offside challenge of the playoffs, coaches are now 2-0 pic.twitter.com/9Cp75VVOZ4
— Shayna (@shaynagoldman_) April 30, 2025
Nyquist has struggled offensively since getting acquired at the trade deadline for a 2026 second-round pick. He has just two goals in 27 games (including playoffs) with the Wild, and just two shots in this series (none in a span of 300 minutes).
Hynes indicated there were things other than production that he brought to the lineup.
“I think with Gus, he’s a veteran player,” Hynes said. “I think he understands how to play in these environments. He plays a strong two-way game,” Hynes said. “He’s very responsible and he adds to our penalty kill. I know he hasn’t gotten out the last few times on it, but he is a good penalty kill for us. So I think there’s lots of value to having a player like him in your lineup.”
Gustavsson delivers, gets sick
Gustavsson has played well all series, and he was really sharp on Tuesday, with 23 saves before leaving the game. The Wild didn’t look good in the early going, and Gustavsson kept this game close with 16 first-period saves. The Golden Knights held a 12-5 advantage in five-on-five scoring chances and 5-1 in high-danger chances in the first 20 minutes, but led just 2-1.
Then in the second period, Gustavsson helped the penalty kill thwart back-to-back Vegas power plays. It was a nice bounce-back for the PK unit, which gave up two key goals in a Game 4 overtime loss. Gustavsson had six saves in the Wild’s first three kills.
Gustavsson has talked about how much more comfortable he is during this playoff appearance, as opposed to two years ago against the Dallas Stars. It was evident in the consistency with which he’s played, the poise.
He’s been excellent in dealing with traffic, as the Golden Knights put more bodies in front of him on Tuesday than pretty much the first four games. The first goal Vegas scored was a short-handed two-on-one rush, a tap-in by Karlsson. The second one was on a screened Stone shot from the point after Jonas Brodin’s turnover, which coach John Hynes surprisingly challenged. Karlsson was in front with Brock Faber, but didn’t appear to disrupt Gustavsson. The unsuccessful challenge gave Vegas a power play when they were already buzzing.
MARK STONE! ⚔️
And Jack Eichel’s got his second assist of the game! #StanleyCup
🇺🇸: @espn ➡️ https://t.co/m0LyTCHYnH
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/Xt1d50HJis
— NHL (@NHL) April 30, 2025
Eichel and Karlsson combo yields results
Cassidy opted to move Karlsson up onto Eichel’s wing midway through Game 4, and stuck with the combo Tuesday night in Vegas. It was only Karlsson’s 11th game on the wing in 455 games with the Golden Knights, but he and Eichel found immediate chemistry and played Minnesota’s top line better than any combination had up to this point.
Eichel and Karlsson connected for the opening goal of the game while killing a penalty. Eichel intercepted Kaprizov’s centering pass, charged down the ice and found Karlsson for a back-door goal to make it 1-0.
Let’s Go Wild BILL 🤠 pic.twitter.com/Yg6CVTQgy8
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) April 30, 2025
Later in the first period, the line struck again, but at even strength. Eichel recovered the puck deep in the Minnesota zone, fended off defenders with his off hand, then found Stone for a one-timer at the point. Meanwhile, Karlsson screened Gustavsson in front of the Wild net, and Stone’s shot found room underneath the goalie’s pads to make it 2-1.
Eichel and Karlsson were strong defensively throughout the game, and were almost exclusively matched up against the line of Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Boldy. Eichel matched up with Kaprizov for 7:52 of even strength ice time, and Vegas held edges in shots (6-3) and goals (1-0) during that span.
Five-forward power-play experiment short-lived
With No. 1 power-play quarterback Zeev Buium scratched for the first time in the series, the Wild unveiled a five-forward power-play unit by adding Ryan Hartman rather than using defensemen Jared Spurgeon or Faber up top.
As noted in our series preview, a five-forward power-play unit can be a short-handed liability if a forward is forced to defend an odd-man rush against an aggressive penalty kill, like the Golden Knights have.
Alas, on the Wild’s first try using five forwards, Kaprizov passed up a clear shot and tried to force a pass to the bumper for Hartman that was off the mark. It was picked off by Eichel, and then Eichel set up Karlsson short-handed with Boldy trying to defend the two-on-one.
It was Karlsson’s third career playoff short-handed goal, a team record.
William Karlsson finishes off Eichel’s sweet pass on the shorthanded rush for the opening goal!#VegasBorn | #StanleyCupPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/B5DttCuYuR
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 30, 2025
But it took Kaprizov 13 seconds to make amends, when he buried Mats Zuccarello’s pass for the tying goal. It was Kaprizov’s 15th career playoff goal, putting him one away from Zach Parise’s record.
Kaprizov is the second player in Wild history with a five-game postseason-opening point streak. Parise scored in six consecutive games to start the 2014 playoffs.
Kirill Kaprizov ANSWERS pic.twitter.com/jRZWfBPoAy
— x – Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) April 30, 2025
After another short-handed rush led by Eichel on the Wild’s second stab at a five-forward look, the coaches swapped Spurgeon for Hartman on the top unit for good.
Wild put trust in Merrill
When Buium didn’t play the entirety of overtime in Game 4 and a tired Jake Middleton turned the puck over to lead to Ivan Barbashev’s winner, there figured to be one of two ways the coaches would react in Game 5: By committing to Buium and realizing they just need to trust the teenager no matter what, or turning over his spot, at least temporarily, to veteran Jon Merrill.
Merrill, a former Golden Knight, was basically a lineup fixture all season for the Wild but was pulled in the playoffs after the Wild signed Buium, their prized 2024 first-rounder and University of Denver star defenseman, after the Frozen Four.
“It’s always heartbreaking to come out of the lineup,” Merrill said Tuesday morning. “It’s upsetting.”
It was Buium’s four-minute high-sticking penalty in the third period that led to Vegas’ tying goal in Game 4 on Saturday. But offensively, he just hadn’t done much either.
The Wild found it enticing to play Buium because of his offensive upside, and he assisted on one of Kaprizov’s power-play goals in Game 3. But other than that, Buium wasn’t getting the puck into the offensive zone with fluidity on the power play and only had two shots in the series.
“I think that there’s times maybe he could trigger, and maybe he’s used to having a little bit more time and space (in college) than he does (in the NHL), where almost you’ve got to trigger right away when the lane’s there,” Hynes said. “I think there’s other times where the shot lanes haven’t been there. And to his credit, he hasn’t just shot the puck to shoot the puck.
“That’s the other thing I do like about him, is that he knows when you sit down and talk to him and you show video, he’s like, ‘Yeah, there was the lane and I’m used to doing this and it’s not there now.’”
(Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie / Imagn Images)
