It's the all-important Game 5 Tuesday night in Las Vegas between the Minnesota Wild and the Golden Knights in the first round of the NHL playoffs. The series tied is tied two apiece and more often than not, that Game 5 winner goes on to win the series. Game 5 winners have won the series 78.8% of the time in such scenarios, according to NHL Public Relations.
"It's parody, it's hard," says Wild head coach John Hynes. "For us, it's like it's a race to four (wins), you know. It's not a race to three."
The Wild's Matt Zuccarello says the team expected a tightly-contested series.
"We're playing top team in the league, I think it's an even serious, it's like expected," Zuccarello explains. "It's the best out of three now, and gotta find a way to win one in Vegas and hopefully take care of it at home. So that's where where we're at."
The Wild had a chance to put a 3-1 stranglehold on the series on Saturday in St. Paul, but Ivan Barbashev scored at 17:26 of overtime and the Golden Knights beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 in Game 4 to even their first-round playoff series.
The Wild held a 2-1 advantage going into the third period. The Wild were 29-0-0 when leading after two periods in the regular season, the only team with a perfect record when holding a lead after 40 minutes of play.
"I think it's it's consistently trying to find a way where we can get better, you know," Hynes said heading into Game 5. "Are there competitive areas of the game that we feel we can be better? And last game, yes, we've addressed those. I think there's certain things that we believe are keys to us being really good and are we doing them consistently enough well enough? Things like that."
The Wild are now 0-5 all-time in Game 4 when holding a 2-1 series lead. Game 5 is in Vegas on Tuesday, with Game 6 on Thursday back in Minnesota.
GAME 5 PREVIEW
Minnesota Wild (45-30-7, in the Central Division) vs. Vegas Golden Knights (50-22-10, in the Pacific Division)
Paradise, Nevada; Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. CDT
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Golden Knights -218, Wild +179; over/under is 5.5
NHL PLAYOFFS FIRST ROUND: Series tied 2-2
BOTTOM LINE: The Vegas Golden Knights host the Minnesota Wild in game five of the first round of the NHL Playoffs with the series tied 2-2. The teams meet Saturday for the eighth time this season. The Golden Knights won 4-3 in overtime in the last meeting.
Vegas is 30-10-3 at home and 50-22-10 overall. The Golden Knights have a +60 scoring differential, with 274 total goals scored and 214 conceded.
Minnesota has a 45-30-7 record overall and a 24-14-5 record in road games. The Wild have given up 236 goals while scoring 225 for a -11 scoring differential.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jack Eichel has scored 28 goals with 66 assists for the Golden Knights. Reilly Smith has one goal and five assists over the past 10 games.
Matthew Boldy has 27 goals and 46 assists for the Wild. Kirill Kaprizov has six goals and eight assists over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Golden Knights: 6-2-2, averaging 3.2 goals, five assists, 2.2 penalties and 4.7 penalty minutes while giving up 2.6 goals per game.
Wild: 6-3-1, averaging 3.5 goals, 5.4 assists, 2.7 penalties and 6.7 penalty minutes while giving up 3.1 goals per game.
INJURIES: Golden Knights: None listed.
Wild: None listed.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.