The goal came 13 seconds after a fight involving Matthew Knies and Nico Hischier.
“Listen, do I want our captain and one of our best players fighting when we’re down 2-0 in the third period? Absolutely not,” Keefe said. “But do we need some guys to step up and show some emotion and show some [courage] and play with some urgency and competitiveness and step out of character? Yeah, we need more of that. I like that Nico did it, and hopefully it rubs off on the rest of the group in a positive way. Your captain is out there taking on a big guy, stepping out of character. We’ll see what we have.”
Knies shot into an empty net at 17:01 for the 4-0 final. It was his third straight game with a goal.
“Everyone showed up tonight,” Woll said. “We did a great job of stepping up regardless of who is in the lineup. Great team win all around. Unbelievable third period by us shutting them down. A great fight by Knies, Robertson had a great game, and the defense was really strong in front of me.”
McMann said the team wanted to ensure they played sound defensive hockey late in the third period to preserve the shutout for Woll.
“You do the old try not to say it, don’t think about it too much, but definitely in the last couple of minutes you’re like, let’s shut this down for Woll because he was stellar all night,” McMann said. “He made some massive highlight-reel saves on his back wherever he was. We were definitely trying to protect (the shutout) at the end.”
NOTE: Berube said Matthews was “fairly close” to playing and is hoping he can get on the ice Wednesday for practice.
