LAS VEGAS (AP) — When Mark Stone returned to the Golden Knights’ lineup for Sunday night’s Game 3 of the Western Conference Final against Colorado, that also meant the return of Vegas’ five-forward power play.
With Stone down low, Mitch Marner shifted to the top in the quarterback role, sending defenseman Shea Theodore to the second unit.
No matter which player is at the top, the Golden Knights’ power play is humming.
Stone’s goal with the man advantage 19 seconds into the second period cut the Avalanche’s lead to 3-1 and sparked a two-period dominance for a 5-3 victory.
“I was lucky enough to find Stoney going backdoor,” Marner said. “From that point on, we just started rolling, the confidence started going a little bit, and everyone started feeling a little better about themselves. We’re a team that doesn’t have any quit in them. We want to make sure every game, regardless of the score, we’re fighting and we’re trying to come back and claw into it.”
And now the Golden Knights, who won the championship three years ago, are one victory from making their third Stanley Cup Final in their nine seasons. They go for the sweep on Tuesday night.
The power play has been a big part of that success. Vegas has scored on it in seven of the past eight games and is converting on a 25% rate for the playoffs, highest among the four remaining teams.
This isn’t just a small sample size, either. The Golden Knights ranked sixth in the regular season at 24.6%.
“We feel confident no matter who is on the ice,” wing Pavel Dorofeyev said. “We’re just trying to do our best to help the team to take advantage of the power play.”
No one took advantage more than Dorofeyev, who smashed the team record with 20 power-play goals in the regular season, topping the 14 that Tomas Hertl had just a year ago. Dorofeyev has four such goals this postseason, tied with Stone and the Canadiens’ Juraj Slafkovský, two other players entering Monday’s play.
Golden Knights coach John Tortorella wouldn’t discuss the intricacies of going with the highly unusual five-forward look, but it’s a formation he largely inherited from previous coach Bruce Cassidy, who employed that look often this season.
Both coaches probably saw what they had in Marner, who also filled the quarterback role when he played in Toronto when the Maple Leafs tried five forwards.
Other teams have run the five-forward look as well. The New York Rangers tried it this season, Los Angeles and Minnesota used it last year, and Florida and Montreal experimented with it in 2022.
But it’s hardly the go-to formation. The vast majority of teams still prefer four forwards with a defenseman patrolling the top. That player is Theodore when the Golden Knights use that scheme.
But now Theodore appears as if he will be at that spot on the second unit as the Golden Knights look to advance to the sport’s championship series.
To get there, they likely will need their power play to come through again.
“I think the fourth win is always the hardest to get, whether it’s a first round, second round or conference final,” Theodore said. “We’re going to expect their best. For them, it’s win or go home. We have to match that intensity from the start.”
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