Ex-Rangers coach gets honest about Game 3 Vegas win: ‘showed some balls’
Leave it to former Rangers coach John Tortorella to cut right to the chase when explaining his Vegas Golden Knights’ epic comeback 5-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final on Sunday at T-Mobile Arena.
“This was a game where we showed some balls,” Tortorella stated frankly postgame. “I want them to feel it for a little bit, as far as what they just did against a really good hockey club.”
The first three-goal comeback win in the postseason for Vegas since entering the NHL in 2017 gives the Golden Knights a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. They can complete a sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche with a win at home Tuesday night. Vegas was 0-19 when trailing by three goals in a playoff game before rallying to defeat the Avalanche.
Colorado led 3-0 after one period, but Vegas scored three times in the second and got the game-winner when Tomas Hertl beat Wedgewood 8:21 into the third before former Rangers center Brett Howden iced the victory with an empty-net goal.
It was just the ninth time in NHL history that a team won after trailing by three goals in the round before the Stanley Cup Final – and the first since the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Boston Bruins 5-3 in Game 4 of the 2011 Eastern Conference Final. The Bruins, though, ended up winning that series in seven games, and then defeated the Vancouver Canucks in seven to win the Stanley Cup.
Considering how well the Golden Knights are playing under Tortorella, plus the fact that the Avalanche lost Nathan MacKinnon, the League’s leading goal scorer when he blocked a shot with his knee in the second period Sunday, it’s difficult to imagine Colorado winning four in a row in this series.
Ex-Rangers coach John Tortorella has Golden Knights one win from reaching Stanley Cup Final
The Golden Knights are 11-4 in the postseason, and could reach the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in their nine-year history with one more victory. As an expansion team, the Golden Knights memorably lost the 2019 Cup Final to the Washington Capitals in five games. They won the Cup in 2023, knocking off the Florida Panthers in five games.
Ironically, Tortorella replaced Vegas’ Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy in late March, with two weeks remaining in the regular season. Torts guided the Golden Knights to a 7-0-1 mark the rest of the way, and they finished first in the Pacific Division. Vegas came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Utah Mammoth in six games during their best-of-7 first-round playoff series, and then defeated the Anaheim Ducks in six games in the second round.
Tortorella had not coached in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2020, when his Columbus Blue Jackets lost in the first round. And his most recent appearance in the conference final was 2012 with — you guessed it — the Rangers, when they lost in six games to the New Jersey Devils.
He guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup championship in 2004.
As for rallying from three goals down to win a game against the top seed in the playoffs, Tortorella’s been here before. Prior to Sunday, the most recent team to do so was the Blue Jackets, coached by Tortorella, in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Lightning in 2019. Columbus swept Tampa Bay in a major upset that year.
Ex-Rangers center Brett Howden caps Vegas’ Game 3 comeback win in West final
It was fitting that Howden’s empty-net goal capped the biggest playoff comeback in the Vegas Golden Knights’ brief history. The former Rangers center scored his 10th goal of the postseason after Colorado pulled goalie Scott Wedgewood for an extra attacker. He tied teammate Pavel Dorofeyev for the NHL goal-scoring lead in this year’s playoffs.
Howden is also plus-8 and averaging 16:40 of ice time through Game 3 of the West Final – more than he’s averaged in any regular season or previous postseason.
“Sometimes you get the bounces,” Howden said when asked about his scoring surge after Vegas’ Game 1 win in this series. “Like, for example, the goal I had (in Game 1) — that was just kind of a crazy bounce. I think sometimes they go, sometimes they don’t. I try not to let that waver, try to not let that dictate how I play or let that affect my game. I try to bring the same game every night.”
The line of Howden, Mitch Marner and William Karlsson, who returned from injury at the beginning of the second-round series against Anaheim, clicked right away when Tortorella put them together. His impact extends beyond goal-scoring, and he’s earned Tortorella’s confidence.
“I just put him in the spots on the ice that I think he needs to be in, which is a lot of different spots,” Tortorella said after Game 1. “He’s a very versatile player for us and is doing a lot of the little things right.”
Karlsson scored the second of Vegas’ three goals in the second period Sunday. It was his first of the playoffs. Captain Mark Stone returned from a five-game injury absence and started the comeback with a power-play goal under a minute into the second period. After Karlsson scored, fourth-liner Keegan Kolesar tied the score, 3-3, with his first postseason goal at 12:46.
Hertl’s goal in the third period was a beauty off a neat chip pass from Stone. And Howden finished it off with his 19th goal in 58 career postseason games.
“That’s what we all love about playoffs,” Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon told The Athletic earlier this month. “It’s what players love about playoffs. It presents those kinds of opportunities. Brett has been a really good playoff performer.”
Howden blossomed with the Golden Knights after the Rangers traded him Sin City on July 17, 2021, following three largely non-descript seasons on Broadway. He played on a line with Stone and Chandler Stephenson during the Golden Knights’ run to the Cup three years ago, scoring five goals and totaling 10 points in 23 postseason games. He filled the role of a net-front presence and scored the OT winner in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars.
After signing a five-year, $12.5 million contract ($2.5 million average annual value) with Vegas on Nov. 22, 2024, Howden enjoyed his best NHL season, finishing with career highs of 22 goals and 40 points before scoring the game-winning goal in Game 1 in the Golden Knights’ first-round series against the Minnesota Wild last spring and an OT winner in Game 5.
Injuries limited Howden to 58 games this season, and he dropped to 12 goals and 22 points. But he’s been filling the net this spring — the way the Rangers once hoped he would.
