Round 1, Game 5 | Mark Stone & Brett Howden Postgame: We’re Happy With The Spot We’re In

Feels good. I mean, uh I mean, we’re we’re happy with the spot that we’re in now. Um um you know, going back there, it’s uh obviously good uh that we have a day to reset and um reather ourselves and and be ready to go for game six. Uh we’ll go Chris next and then Jesse. Yeah. Hey Bark, big time players step up in big time games and Jack Eel was really good tonight. just talk about what you saw from him and and the game you saw he he had tonight. Yeah, for sure. Um you know, I think if you look at the first g four games, I don’t think uh you know, he’d be the first one and say he doesn’t love the way he’s playing, but tonight uh you know, he exerted his dominance. Um he controlled the puck. Uh he had the puck on his stick for you know the majority of the time he was on the ice uh backing their def defense off, making great plays. Obviously saw the short-handed goal just um puts people on his back, makes a great play to Carl. Same thing. Drives the puck deep. Um you know, creates separation for everybody. They collapse and finds me for the for the second goal. You just are starting to see him, you know, get back to you, holding on to the puck and and really just, you know, like I said, exuding his dominance with his strength, speed, and and skill. Jesse for Brett. Jesse Granger with the Athletic. Can you just I guess tell us a little bit about maybe how you were feeling at the end of last game and and what these last couple days have been like and and how you felt through an overtime game tonight. Yeah, I I I mean I’m doing okay. I’m I’m fine. Um uh you know, everybody goes through uh things like this. Um so um uh just kind of reathered myself. Um, lots of hydration, but uh um I think tonight um as the game went on, I actually started to feel better and better. Um I think I started to find my energy a little bit more and um obviously in overtime you can see when you know some games go the distance, but um it was nice tonight for for us that uh that wasn’t the case and and we closed it out uh early. We’ll go to Mark and then we’ll go to Danny and then Paul. Mark, the swing of emotions um third period looks like you guys might have lost the game and win the challenge being able to group in in the locker room after that. What what did you guys tell yourselves at that point? Yeah, I thought we kind of dipped our toe into the you know into the third period. We had a good good start with a good kill. Um but you know kind of kind of just sitting back uh obviously you don’t want to take unnecessary risk but you want to keep playing keep pushing forward and I think once they they got that goal tied to too I thought we reset pretty well and and and played well in third. Um as far as the challenge it’s great challenge by uh by Dave um you know critical point of the game. uh you either got a minute and 15 seconds left to try and tie the game um you know but he saw it right away and um gets a challenge and once you get into the locker room uh you know we feel comfortable again we regrouped pretty well I thought we had a great start to overtime um started forchecking started making plays getting pucks to the net and uh Pierce makes a you know an incredible play draws two guys to him and Howards finds the soft spot to to end it. Um, Mark, a lot was made about the the lineup changes over the last couple of days. Just how much of a spark did that give you guys even dating back to game four and just how much of that did that carry over to tonight? Just seemed like you guys had a lot of jump early on and it seemed to carry over. Yeah, I think you know sometimes just a little change can, you know, give you a little bit of excitement, I guess. Um, you know, me and Jack have played together majority of the year. wasn’t going so well for those first uh first few games and get away from each other for 40 minutes and and went pretty well for for uh for the group. So, um we got a lot of good players. Everybody feels comfortable playing with everybody. Uh we got guys that can play different positions, which is which is important. Like how can slide to center, which allows Carl to play left wing. Um you know, outs can go back to the wing. Uh that’s important. So, uh, I think that’s what, uh, uh, is great for, for our team is having guys that are able to do that. Hey, Mark, both games it seems like the goal came from a greasy play. Just how important is it to get those greasy goals, especially in overtime when, you know, your first two goals were a little bit fancier. Yeah, I mean, it was a great for check, but, uh, it was a pretty damn nice play. I think that the overtime goal uh, don’t discredit the play that Pierce made on his backhand, and I think the shot speaks for itself, right? You got to uh when you get the opportunity to score the or get a chance like that uh it’s important to end it. Um you know you see in overtime a lot of the times it’s the one that you miss sometimes comes back to to bite you. Um so that was a great execution to to get the job done. Um they’re a good defensive team, right? So they take uh take away the the middle of the ice really well. So sometimes it’s tough to get in there, but um we’re starting to do a better better job breaking it down. Last one, Chris. Hey Brett, I don’t know if you’re aware, but you’re the first player in franchise history to now have multiple game-winning overtime goals, but could you just kind of walk us through the the play starting maybe with Nick? Yeah. Um Hager does a good job to keep it in. Um you know, staying on top of their winger and then uh Pierce drawing two guys to him um kind of left me open. Um like Stony said, they played tight defensively, so for them to kind of have a quick breakdown like that and Pierce to make a great play um on his backhand too um just puts me alone in front there and I just tried to get it off quick. Um but yeah, I mean it’s it’s a it’s a great play by Pierce to to kind of draw those guys to him to free me up.

Mark Stone and Brett Howden speak to the media following a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 5 of the first-round series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena.

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