Golden Knights 5, Avalanche 1

After the Vegas Golden Knights lost the first two games of their second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche, captain Mark Stone said no team is out of a series until it loses at home.

After sweeping two in Vegas, the Golden Knights are back in business.

Jonathan Marchessault had his fourth career hat trick to lead Vegas to a 5-1 victory over the Avalanche on Sunday night to tie their second-round series at two games apiece.

Two days after his tying goal sparked a come-from-behind win in Game 3, Marchessault got his third three-goal game with the Golden Knights. The eight-year veteran also had one while with Florida.

“If we win as a group, it’s the most important thing,” Marchessault said. “And we’ve proven we can play with the best team in the league. We’re on a mission right now. We just have to keep going and focus on Game 5.”

Max Pacioretty and Patrick Brown also scored for Vegas, while Marc-Andre Fleury made 17 saves for his 87th career playoff victory — one shy of tying Ed Belfour for fifth on the all-time list.

The game was played in front of an announced crowd of 18,081 — the largest to attend an NHL game this season.

“It’s loud — it’s hard to hear anything in there,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said about Vegas’ home crowd. “You can tell by my voice, just talking on the bench trying to call the next line, I’m losing my voice. There’s a lot of noise in this building.”

Game 5 is Tuesday night at Colorado, where the Avalanche have yet to lose a playoff game and were 24-4-2 during the regular season. The Golden Knights handed the Avs two of their six home losses this season.

“We didn’t think we were going to come in here and take both games,” said Brandon Saad, who had the only goal for the Avalanche. “We didn’t play as good as we should’ve, but we’re going back to the building where we have success, and we play well at.”

Philipp Grubauer, who came in with a .941 playoff save percentage, stopped 30 shots for the Avalanche.

Coming out of a grueling seven-game series against Minnesota and opening the second round on just one day of rest, the Golden Knights were pummeled 7-1 in the series-opener. They lost Game 2 in overtime, 3-2.

But Vegas has outscored Colorado 9-4 since the start of the second period in Game 2 and outshot the Avalanche 110-52 since the first period of the same game.

“I think we gave 'em a little bit too much respect,” Stone said. “Obviously in Game 1, we kind of sat back, we just kind of dipped our toe. I think after the first period in Game 2, we realized we could play with these guys.”

After Saad gave Colorado a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game, the Golden Knights dominated. Whether they were exiting the defensive zone and building steam in the neutral zone, keeping pressure on Grubauer, or neutralizing the Avalanche’s speedy top line, the Knights controlled the action for much of the night.

For the game, at 5-on-5, Vegas held a 26-17 edge on shot attempts, a 27-13 advantage with scoring chances, and a 17-5 lead with high-danger chances.

Marchessault tied it at 1 after linemate Reilly Smith’s backhand caromed off the crossbar with what Grubauer thought was a goal as he appeared dejected and took his focus away from the action. William Karlsson threw the puck at the net and Marchessault was there for a redirect into a wide-open net.

On the first shift of the second period, Stone led a 3-on-2 rush from the defensive zone and as they crossed the red line, fed Pacioretty, who skated in and scored on a wrist shot from the top of the left circle to the far side.

Later in the period, on a power play, Alex Pietrangelo drew all four Colorado skaters in his direction, leaving Marchessault wide open and with a perfect view of the net. Pietrangelo sent a soft pass to Marchessault, who blasted a one-timer past Grubauer, making it 3-1.

Marchessault completed the hat trick six minutes into the third period, when he took Smith’s cross-ice pass and buried it to give Vegas a commanding three-goal lead.

Brown, who wore the captain’s “C” on his sweater during the AHL season with the Henderson Silver Knights, sent a chip shot at Grubauer, who slid behind the goal line with the puck to provide the final margin.

“It was nice to score some goals tonight,” Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think our group got rewarded for keeping the relentless pressure on Colorado that I think we’ve been putting on them for three games, both physically and with the pucks. We've just got t0 continue to do that and hope we stick enough pucks to the net every night to win.

“We’ve got work left to do, but we like where we’re at tonight.”

Canadiens 5, Jets 1

Joel Armia had two goals and an assist, Carey Price made 26 saves, and Montreal defeated Winnipeg to take a 3-0 lead in their second-round playoff series.

Corey Perry, Artturi Lehkonen and Nick Suzuki also scored for the Canadiens, who have won six straight playoff games and haven't trailed in a game since losing Game 4 against Toronto in the first round. Montreal will try to complete a four-game sweep of Winnipeg on Monday night at home.

Armia, Perry and Eric Staal are listed as the Canadiens’ fourth line, but the trio is a big reason why Montreal is one win from advancing to the third round.

“They’re definitely not a fourth line,” Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. “They’re playing big-boy hockey. They’ve been able to put together such long cycle shifts. They know what they are as a line, and they just play to their strengths. Playoff hockey has certainly brought the best out of the three of them.”

The Canadiens lead a playoff series 3-0 for the first time since 2015, when they beat Ottawa in the opening round.

“We know the feeling of having your back against the wall,” Suzuki said. “We know they’re going to be coming out with a lot of intensity.”

Adam Lowry scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves. Winnipeg was without top center Mark Scheifele, who is serving a four-game suspension for a charging penalty in the series opener. The Jets got Paul Stastny back after he missed the first two games with an undisclosed injury.

“You’ve got to keep believing,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. “There’s some things in our game that we really like, some things we can clean up certainly, and hopefully we get a bounce to go our way. Hopefully one goes off of one of their sticks and ricochets into the net and we’ll take a lead and see how it looks from there.”

Montreal welcomed another 2,500 fans Sunday night after hosting the first NHL crowd in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic for Game 6 against Toronto.

“It’s only 2,500,” Gallagher said. “But they’re a loud 2,500. They give us a lot of energy.”

The Canadiens opened the scoring at 4:45 of the first period on a grinding shift by the fourth line of Perry, Armia and Staal. Caught in the middle of a change following a turnover, the Jets were hemmed into their own end for 30 seconds before Perry’s shot — the Canadiens’ third chance of the sequence — went off Winnipeg defenseman Jamie Benn’s stick and past Hellebuyck.

Lehkonen made it 2-0 at 9:24 of the second on a scramble after Phillip Danault hit the post.

The Jets went to the power play when the Canadiens were whistled for too many men, but Armia intercepted Stastny’s pass and broke the other way on a 2-on-1 before delaying around a sliding Josh Morrissey to make it 3-0 at 13:41 of the second. It was Montreal’s third short-handed goal of the playoffs.

Lowry broke Price’s shutout streak at 99 minutes, 33 seconds with 2:09 left in the period when he took a pass from Mathieu Perreault and fired blocker side for his second.

Suzuki made it 4-1 on a power play at 8:52 of the third, and Armia added his second of the night into an empty net with Hellebuyck on the bench for an extra attacker and Montreal killing another penalty with 3:18 remaining.

Only four teams have come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series in NHL history. The last was in 2014 when the Los Angeles Kings defeated the San Jose Sharks in the first round. Jets center Trevor Lewis and Canadiens winger Tyler Toffoli were both on that Kings team that would go on to win the franchise’s second Stanley Cup.

The Canadian federal government announced Sunday it will issue a travel exemption to allow the winner of the North Division and an American counterpart to cross the border during the third round of the playoffs and, if necessary, the Stanley Cup final.