How Reilly Smith’s last-second goal saved Golden Knights, stunned Oilers and swung series

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EDMONTON — Watch the replay of Reilly Smith’s last-second, game-winning, series-swinging goal in Game 3. Now, watch it again and again and again.

Just the third go-ahead goal scored with less than one second remaining in NHL playoff history, it defies belief for so many reasons.

“That was one of the craziest things that I’ve ever seen in a hockey game,” Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nicolas Hague said in the dressing room following the 4-3 win.

But first, let us set the stage.

Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid had tied the score barely three minutes earlier when he banked a puck off Brayden McNabb’s skate. That goal was bizarre enough.

The Captain 🫡 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/y5vy3VGGpF

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 11, 2025

Most importantly, though, it made overtime a near certainty and seemingly presented the Oilers with another chance to grab a decisive 3-0 series lead after they had blown a 2-0 lead in the game.

The Oilers should have been able to run out the clock and get to an extra period. Instead, the Golden Knights made them pay in a manner that felt impossible.

William Karlsson couldn’t even gain the Oilers’ blue line with seven seconds left in regulation because so many blue and orange sweaters were around him. Darnell Nurse stood him up, while McDavid was right on his heels. Leon Draisaitl and Brett Kulak were also in the picture as Karlsson’s teammates changed.

Karlsson was forced to dump the puck into the corner and chase it. Kulak charged after Karlsson and hit him just as Karlsson centered the puck. It got past both McDavid and Nurse and went right to Smith in the slot.

“I’ve seen Karl use that play a few times where he forechecks and spins it out in front of the net,” Smith said. “Jumping off the bench, I think there was around seven seconds left, so I was trying to get there as fast as possible.”

Smith approached the bouncing puck at the top of the slot, surrounded by chaos. The sold-out arena was roaring. Both McDavid and Nurse dropped to block what they expected to be a ripper of a slap shot, and goaltender Stuart Skinner — starting in place of an injured Calvin Pickard — came flying out of his crease to cut off the angle.

“I thought (Smith) was going to shoot it right away,” Skinner said. “I thought he didn’t have that much time. I just sprawled, went out there. I stayed with him for another half second.”

Amidst that chaos, Smith patiently faked the shot and held onto the puck. He held it, and held it, and held it until Skinner had slid out of position, and then he finally fired it toward the net.

“It was just hope, really,” Smith said. “I think if I tried to shoot it, it’s getting stopped by the first guy if not the second guy, or the goalie, so sometimes you just hope for the best.”

The angle wasn’t there, however, so Smith’s shot was headed straight through the crease — at least until Draisaitl tried to help. In an attempt to save the game, Draisaitl made a play on the puck. He deflected it into the empty net.

“It’s unlucky. It’s unfortunate. It goes off my stick,” Draisaitl said. “I’m just trying to keep it out of the net, obviously. It’s just a bad bounce.”

“Devastating,” Skinner said.

Referee Garrett Rank immediately and emphatically waved the goal off, leaving everyone — the 12 players on the ice, both benches, the 18,347 fans inside Rogers Place and the millions watching on TV — staring in silence, wondering what had just happened.

REILLY SMITH WITH .4 SECONDS LEFT WINS IT FOR VEGAS pic.twitter.com/yhRUHizdh6

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 11, 2025

“Smitty and Karly seemed to think right away that it went in, so I was optimistic when I saw their reaction,” said Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin, who was on the ice for the final seconds. “I couldn’t really tell what had happened. I asked Smitty and he thought that it went in. Then the whole bench erupted, and they were the only guys in the entire building making noise, so I was pretty pumped.”

The play was eventually reviewed and ruled a goal with 0.4 seconds left, but the Vegas bench knew it long before the official announcement, erupting in celebration just seconds after Smith scored.

“I was looking up, I think, then someone started yelling,” Hague recalled. “It came onto whatever you call it (the monitors on the bench) under our feet. We started celebrating. It was fun.”

It was an incredible play under incredible circumstances.

“The patience there is unbelievable,” Hague said. “They were selling out to block, which I would too. Less than a second left, so for him to push it around those guys and get it there was special.”

On one side, jubilation. On the other side, devastation.

As a team leader and NHL superstar, Draisaitl is usually the first person to address the media when requested following a game. On Saturday, it took him 20 minutes from the time the room was open to appear in the main area for his interview.

Draisaitl was morose as he spoke, mostly answering in platitudes.

It was as if the Oilers were still trying to wrap their heads around the sudden turn of events that could have a drastic effect on the series.

The Oilers aren’t unfamiliar with losing like this. They stormed back from a three-goal deficit in the third period to tie the opening game of the postseason against the Los Angeles Kings, only to allow a Phillip Danault marker with 42 seconds remaining.

“It’s probably more deflating losing the way we did and not getting to overtime,” veteran winger Corey Perry said. “It’s happened twice to us in these playoffs.”

The difference is that the first downfall happened in a Game 1. This one, on Saturday, was later in a series — and with less time on the clock.

They say once is a coincidence, twice is a pattern. It sure isn’t a good one for the Oilers.

“I’m not exactly sure,” Skinner said when asked if he could put his finger on why. “It’s completely different scenarios, but you know that they’re going to push.”

The Golden Knights were the ones pushing for most of the game. They’re the team that deserved this win, regardless of the conclusion’s zaniness.

The Oilers had few chances from the time Perry scored his second goal of the game and fifth of the postseason at 11:12 of the first period until McDavid tied it up late.

It was the Smith shot and the Draisaitl own goal that cost them a chance to go up 3-0 in the end, but, really, they were lucky they were even close.

“We didn’t have our best stuff tonight,” Perry said. “We can look around the room and everybody will say the same thing. We had that opportunity, and we know that we can be a lot better.”

The swing in the entire outlook on the series was as dramatic as it can be in Game 3.

At one point in the first period the Golden Knights were down 2-0 on the scoreboard, staring at the possibility of a 3-0 series hole and had just watched their captain Mark Stone skate off the ice and down the tunnel with an upper-body injury that knocked him out of the game.

They went from that to hugging each other in celebration in the midst of a silent, stunned arena knowing they just cut the Oilers series lead to 2-1 and that they were the better team for most of the last two games.

“No matter what happens, super high or super low moments, I think we do a good job of staying even keel and knowing we’re never out of it,” Hague said. “Tonight was a good example.”

Stone’s injury left Vegas with 11 forwards for the majority of the game. Coach Bruce Cassidy was mixing and matching his forwards so much that he lost his voice yelling new line combinations to his players over the raucous crowd. The Golden Knights — chock-full of Stanley Cup champs — seemingly handled it with ease.

“I think our group in general is a very cerebral group,” Cassidy said. “I think they’re highly competitive but calm in nature. They don’t panic when things don’t go their way. That’s just the makeup of the group. Some of that is they’ve been through a lot. They’ve won. They’ve lost.”

That experience also makes the team acutely aware that for as memorable as this victory was, it’s only one win, and they still need three more in the next four games.

“I think after these playoffs are said and done, I’ll look back at it, but right now my mindset is that I was able to help the team win a game,” Smith said. “It was a big win for our team. We need to use the momentum in front of us to push forward but focus on one game at a time.”

The potential loss of Stone can’t be overstated. Cassidy didn’t provide an update beyond saying he wouldn’t rule him out for Monday’s Game 4 and that they’ll see how Stone feels in the morning. The Golden Knights still have quite a hill to climb, and despite the momentum-swinging play, the Oilers still lead the series.

“Before the series started, if you were to tell us we were going to be up 2-1 through three, we’d be happy,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We’re up 2-1 with Game 4 at home, and we’re looking forward to that.”

It’s just one game, and both sides understand that, but it was one heck of a finish. Cassidy may have said it best.

“You leave it all out there and the fractions of a second can break your heart or do the opposite.”

(Photo: Leila Devlin / Getty Images)

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