Golden Knights even series vs. Wild with overtime goal in Game 4: Takeaways

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By Michael Russo, Jesse Granger and Joe Smith

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Ivan Barbashev delivered for the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, scoring 17:26 into overtime to secure a 4-3 win in Game 4 and tying the first-round series with the Minnesota Wild at 2-2.

Barbashev scored after a scramble in front of the Minnesota net, after the Golden Knights killed a power play earlier in overtime.

Vegas defied the odds to rally in the third period and win in overtime. The Wild had been 31-0-0 this season when entering the third period with a lead, but the Golden Knights snapped that streak to avoid being pushed to the brink of elimination. Game 5 is on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The Wild are now 0-5 all-time in Game 4 when holding a 2-1 series lead.

Shea Theodore’s power-play goal gave Vegas a 1-0 lead 6:47 into the first period, but that lasted only four minutes until Marco Rossi’s tying goal.

Minnesota led for much of the game after Marcus Foligno’s third goal of the series, 1:24 into the second period, but 4:50 into the third period, Nicolas Roy scored on the power play — after a double-minor penalty to Zeev Buium — to make it a 2-2 game.

The Golden Knights regained the lead briefly when Tomas Hertl scored with 9:57 left in the third period, but the Wild’s Jared Spurgeon tied it 4-4 just 54 seconds later.

Filip Gustavsson was terrific, a big reason the Wild even got to overtime. He made 43 saves, including a sprawling pad stop on Reilly Smith with four minutes to go in a tied game. He also had a breakaway save on William Karlsson.

FILIP GUSTAVSSON ARE YOU KIDDING ME pic.twitter.com/cOh0caP8jp

— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) April 26, 2025

Adin Hill, pulled in Game 3, made 29 saves in Game 4.

‘No-Move (Clause) Line’ comes through

At the end of training camp in 2023, Wild GM Bill Guerin signed Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello to four-, three- and two-year contract extensions, respectively, with full no-move clauses.

The deals kicked in this year and, on Saturday afternoon, they played on a line together for the first time as coach John Hynes scrambled the lines with Marcus Johansson sidelined by a lower-body injury.

Hartman, who had five shots on goal in the game and nine others attempted, had the primary assist on Foligno’s go-ahead goal in the second period for the first lead change in the series and first of two lead changes in the game.

It started with an aggressive forecheck from the three forwards and ultimately led to a jump-ball scenario in which Foligno created space for himself by checking Alex Pietrangelo out of position.

Marcus Foligno finds the puck in front of the net and gives the Minnesota Wild a 2-1 lead in Game 4.

📹: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/FrzLDzetGs

— Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) April 26, 2025

Foligno extended his goal streak to three games, tying his career-high (regular season or playoffs). The Wild’s team-record playoff goal streak is four games (Kirill Kaprizov in 2022 and Marian Gaborik in 2003).

Hartman became the second player in Wild history to register at least one assist in each of the team’s first four playoff games of a single year (following Zach Parise in 2014).

Trenin’s turn

One of the reasons the Wild signed Yakov Trenin last summer was because they felt he was built for playing late in the season, built for playoff hockey. That’s where his true value would show. And despite not playing a lot of minutes in this series, Trenin and the Wild’s fourth line have come through. That included in Game 4, with Trenin creating the tying goal by Rossi midway through the first period.

Marco Rossi finishes off the nifty setup from Trenin, evening up the score at 1 for Minnesota!#mnwild | #StanleyCupPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/7C3SkjGsIh

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 26, 2025

The Wild were down 1-0 when Trenin raced in on the forecheck and separated Nicolas Hague from the puck behind the net. Trenin then found Rossi in front with a slick pass, and Rossi scored for the second straight game.

It was a disappointing regular season for Trenin, who had seven goals in 76 games and was a healthy scratch at one point. But Trenin has made some impactful plays so far. Hynes hasn’t played the line with Trenin, Rossi and Justin Brazeau a lot, especially in Game 4. The trio didn’t play the last 13:05 of the second period, and their next shift wasn’t until six minutes into the third period.

Rossi, the team’s third-leading goal-scorer during the regular season (24), played just 4:40 through two periods and 11:01 for the game. Gus Nyquist, who has zero five-on-five goals in 26 games with the Wild and one in his last 73 games, played 6:11 through two periods and 10:48 overall.

Trenin had a chance to give the Wild the lead back with eight minutes left in the third, but Adin Hill made a tremendous save on a breakaway.

timely • save
(ˈtīm-lē ˈsāv)

1. To save a game, and possibly a season

Pictured: pic.twitter.com/W2BBPB1fDy

— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) April 26, 2025

Buium’s double minor hurts, then Spurgeon responds to go-ahead goal

The Wild’s penalty kill, which gave up a goal to Theodore in the first period and two goals in Game 1, was big late in Game 3, with three of its four penalty kills in the third period.

It was tested again in the third period on Saturday, when rookie Zeev Buium, playing his fourth career game, accidentally clipped Golden Knights captain Mark Stone near his right eye.

Zeev Buium receives a four-minute double minor for high-sticking Mark Stone.

📹: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/JsOYDOTs3o

— Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) April 26, 2025

Stone got up perplexed that no penalty was called, as he showed the officials his face full of blood. They called a double-minor penalty so they could review and, sure enough, replays confirmed Buium’s penalty.

The Wild held Vegas without a shot during the first two minutes, but on the back end, Roy tied the score. It was an insult to injury, so to speak, because on the first power play, Roy got away with cross-checking Jake Middleton.

This is one of the stranger goals we’ve seen so far in the NHL playoffs.

Credited to Tomas Hertl after a shot from Mark Stone is banked off and into the net.

📹: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/QvWvO688V5

— Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) April 26, 2025

This started a flurry of action that included Hertl giving Vegas a 3-2 lead when Stone’s shot hit him in the leg while on top of Hartman, and then Spurgeon tied the score on a wraparound 54 seconds later.

SPURGEON ANSWERS RIGHT BACK! WHAT A GAME! pic.twitter.com/wY54Oc8GQl

— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) April 26, 2025

After the double-minor penalty, Buium got only three more shifts in the third period and none in overtime. Spurgeon took his spot on the first power-play unit in overtime.

Cassidy mixes up the forward lines

After three and a half games of watching his top line struggle to generate offense, Cassidy split up Jack Eichel, Stone and Ivan Barbashev midway through the second period.

On Friday, Cassidy said he would prefer not to change the lines up because “it can be viewed as panic” at this time of year, but he ended up making changes to all four of his four lines halfway through Game 4.

He moved Eichel onto a line with William Karlsson and Reilly Smith, moved Stone down with Tanner Pearson and Brett Howden, and moved Barbashev onto the fourth line with Roy and Keegan Kolesar. The group ended up rotating quite a bit from there, with a myriad of different combinations used in the third period.

The changes worked, as Vegas felt more dangerous with the puck in the final frame than at any other point in the series. Hertl’s goal was only the Golden Knights’ sixth at even strength through four games.

Roy steps up big for the power play

Early in the third period, with Stone bloodied from a high stick and heading to the dressing room, Cassidy needed to replace his captain for the ensuing four-minute power play. He chose to send out Roy, and he delivered with the exact type of goal Cassidy has been seeking.

Gustavsson made consecutive saves on Barbashev and Hertl, but Roy battled through contact to get to the rebound and buried it to tie the game 2-2. Roy had only two power-play goals in the regular season, but scored one of the biggest of the season on Saturday.

Roy has been one of Vegas’ most consistent forwards in this series. He assisted on Howden’s game-winner in Game 1, and has helped the fourth line win the possession battle when they’re on the ice in nearly every game.

Vegas’ second-ranked power play has been crucial, scoring twice on Saturday and four times in the first four games. Theodore’s power-play goal opened the scoring, and was the result of a great screen by Stone in front of Gustavsson.

(Photo of Wild’s Ryan Hartman and Golden Knights’ Pavel Dorofeyev: Bruce Fedyck / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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