Vegas Golden Knights coach John Tortorella heaped praise on his team after a dramatic 5-3 comeback win over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final on Sunday.
The Avalanche dominated the first period and built a solid 3-0 lead. However, they lost their momentum and could not sustain their early dominance for the rest of the game. The Golden Knights, on the other hand, staged a remarkable comeback, erasing the 3-0 deficit with five unanswered goals to take Game 3.
John Tortorella, who was hired as the Golden Knights’ coach late in the regular season, has done an outstanding job. His team now sits just one win away from sweeping Colorado and advancing to the Stanley Cup Final.
In his post-game press conference, Tortorella had nothing but high praise for his team’s performance and resilience in orchestrating the comeback:
“This is a game where we showed some balls,” he said.
Avs’ Cale Make shares his thoughts after Game 3 loss to Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of WCF
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar played his first game of the Western Conference Final after returning to the lineup in Game 3 due to a lower-body injury. Reflecting on the loss, he said:
“It is frustrating. We have been on the other side of that, obviously coming back from deficits and it is going to happen, but it cannot happen at this time of the year. Like I said, I felt like they got some lucky bounces, but we have to find a better way to challenge ourselves in those moments and come out on top. It is unfortunate that we still had a chance in the third period.”
He added:
“We come out, we get some good opportunities, but we know there is a lot of game left. They are an opportunistic team and they found a way to crawl their way back. We still felt confident that we could get one in the third period and it just didn’t fold out our way.”
Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, and Jack Drury were the three goal scorers for the Avalanche in the matchup. Scott Wedgewood made 18 saves and posted a save percentage of .818.
The Avalanche will hope to bounce back in Game 4 on Tuesday. The puck at T-Mobile Arena drops at 8 p.m. ET.
Edited by Abhishek Dilta
