NHL Playoffs 2025: Reilly Smith’s buzzer-beater vs. Oilers headlines 3 Stars of the Night

It Nhl Playoffs simply never disappoint, and on Saturday night it had a moment of falling the jaw. Reilly Smith’s goal won the game for Vegas Golden Knights and kept them alive in their second round against Edmonton Oilers.

Smith was the biggest protagonist of the night, as he recorded two goals for Vegas’s 4-3 victory over Edmonton in the game 3. The first goal of Smith’s night was a beauty. He skated through three oilers and finished the play with a Slick Deke in Stuart Skinner. No matter how cool it was, no one remembered it at the end of the game.

Playoffs of the NHL 2025: Stanley Cup calendar, Bracket, scores, as Golden Knights beat Oilers with Buzzer-Beater

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This is because, with 0.4 seconds on the clock, Smith beat the timbre to get Vegas on the series board. Smith gave the Golden Knights a great impetus for morale because, a few minutes earlier, Connor McDavid tied the score with 3:02 on the left. It seemed that Vegas went to another traffic loss until Smith took a miracle.

The first game of the night was not so exciting. Carolina Hurricanes, led by goalkeeper Frederik Andersen, completely suffocated the Capitals Washington in a 4-0 victory. Andersen saved the 21 shots he faced, and a good handful of them were of the variety of degree A.

Needless to say, Smith and Andersen made the cut for our 3 stars of the night, which honors the best performers of each night of the Playoffs of the Stanley Cup.

Age is nothing more than a number, and Perry showed that in the party 3. With his two goals of the first period, Perry not only gave the Oilers an early spark, but also made some history in the process.

Only at 7:19 in Game 3, Perry received a drop from Connor McDavid, entered the slot and shot a shot at Adin Hill to open the score. Only 3:53 later, Perry threw at home a shot of Evan Bouchard Point.

With this second account, the 39 -year -old Perry became the oldest player in Oilers history to record a Playoff game for several goals. He also became the third player in NHL history to score two goals in a Playoff period.

2. Frederick Andersen | G | Hurricane

Andersen lost the game 5 against the devils of New Jersey due to injuries, and it was fair to ask if this would affect the second round. So far, Andersen has been even better than he was in the first round, and was at his best against the Washington Capitals in match 3.

Andersen launched a stop, stopping the 21 shots he faced, but that does not tell the whole story. Although Andersen did not see a large volume of shots, he faced some dangerous possibilities. In fact, he saw a higher shot of Danger (8) that his counterpart Logan Thompson (7). According to Natural Stat Trick, Andersen saved 1.71 goals above the average in the game 3. Between Andersen’s goal and the defensive structure of the Cannes elite, Washington continued with a brick wall offensively.

1. Reilly Smith | RW | Golden knights

With Mark Stone for most of the game 3 due to an upper body injury, the Golden Knights needed someone else to sink if they were going to return to the series. Reilly Smith did it with his game winner game in Edmonton.

In the first period, Smith scored a great goal to tie the game at 2 o’clock. A couple of hours later, this play would become a forgetful page note. After Connor McDavid scored the score to 3-3 with just over three minutes, it seemed that these two teams went to the extension for the second consecutive game.

When the clock was marked by zero in regulation, William Karlsson has just turned to the front of the network. He found his way to the high slot where Smith took it, bombed two defenders, waited for Skinner and fired the game winner with 0.4 seconds.