Interference calls overshadow Karlsson’s big game for Knights

It wasn’t a good night for the Golden Knights when it came to goaltender interference.

A ruling on one San Jose Sharks goal in regulation went against the Knights. But it was a disallowed Knights goal in the second overtime that wound up costing them in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals, a 4-3 loss that earned the Sharks a split Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

Jonathan Marchessault appeared to have scored the game-winner with 3:02 left in the first overtime when he put the rebound of Shea Theodore’s shot past Martin Jones. But Marchessault made contact with Jones prior to the play and the goal was disallowed.

“It’s a hard game out there and they tried to do the best decision possible at the moment,” Marchessault said. “I thought we were the better team in the third period and in the first overtime. We had a lot of pressure on their D in their end. We had more chances. But they were more opportunistic, I guess.”

The Knights had challenged a second-period goal by Brent Burns, claiming Marc-Andre Fleury was interfered with on the play. But it was ruled that Colin Miller had pushed Timo Meier into Fleury to create the interference and the goal stood.

Fleury said he wasn’t sure how the call on the Knights’ challenge of that goal would go.

“You never know,” he said. “Sometimes you get the call, sometimes you don’t. There was some contact, yes, but I guess they saw it the way they did.”

The calls overshadowed another strong effort by center William Karlsson, who had two of the Knights’ three goals Saturday and continues to be a thorn in the side of the Sharks.

After Karlsson had three assists in the Knights’ 7-0 win in Game 1, he helped give the Knights a 2-0 lead early in the second period of Game 2.

His first goal started with some strong forechecking in the San Jose zone as he kept the play alive along the left side boards after Brent Burns, then Joonas Donskoi failed to clear the zone.

Karlsson got the puck to Nate Schmidt, who moved it to Colin Miller, whose slap shot was wide of the net. But the carom came out to Karlsson, who was near the left post at a tough angle as he put it high over Jones’ shoulder.

But Karlsson was just getting warmed up.

Only 26 seconds into the second period, he struck again. This time, he took a feed from Reilly Smith and ripped a low, hard shot past Jones from the right faceoff circle to make it 2-0. But the Sharks rallied with three unanswered second-period goals to take a 3-2 lead going into the third period.

Marchessault and his teammates thought they were going to San Jose up 2-0 in the series. Instead, it’s tied 1-1 and there will be a Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena at 7 p.m. Friday.

“That’s the way it is,” Marchessault said. “We had some adversity to deal with but you’ve got to give the other team credit. Now we have to get ready for the next game.”

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Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.