LAS VEGAS -- Tomas Hertl scored at the 8:21 mark of the third period, and the Vegas Golden Knights completed an impressive comeback with five straight goals en route to a 5-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche Sunday in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.
Keegan Kolesar, William Karlsson and Mark Stone also scored for Vegas, which placed Colorado, the NHL's top seed, in a surprising 3-0 hole after the Avalanche opened the postseason with an 8-1 record. Brett Howden sealed the rally with his 10th goal of the postseason into an empty net with 58 seconds remaining.
"It wasn't a great first period for us," Hertl told ESPN's Emily Kaplan after the game on the Vegas bench. "But like all season, we knew we could do it. We've come back so many times. This team ... we just never quit."
The Golden Knights thought they had another tally, all the way back in the first period, but a disputed no-goal call helped result in a two-goal swing and give the Avalanche a 3-0 lead.
Vegas forward Pavel Dorofeyev appeared to score a power-play goal with 7:26 left in the first period, but officials immediately waved it off, and the decision was upheld on video review. The Golden Knights promptly celebrated despite the initial non-call with a run through the high-five line, believing it would be changed after officials checked the video.
Officials ruled on the ice that the puck went off Dorofeyev's glove, according to the ESPN broadcast, and found the video inconclusive. Dorofeyev's stick also might have been above the crossbar, but it was at least even with it.
The Avalanche then made the Golden Knights pay when Jack Drury found himself alone on a breakaway, deking Vegas goalie Carter Hart to score a short-handed goal with 6:45 left for the three-goal lead, before the home team mounted its rally.
To make matters worse, Avalanche star forward Nathan MacKinnon was injured in the second period -- but he returned to skate on his team's power-play unit in the third period.
With 7:54 left in the second, MacKinnon blocked a slapshot off the stick of Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore in the Colorado defensive zone. The puck appeared to hit off MacKinnon's left leg as he fell to the ice while Vegas maintained possession.
MacKinnon was helped to his feet by teammates Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen, before skating off on his own power. MacKinnon, at first, remained in the game, taking two short shifts. When he made it to the Avalanche bench after that second one, though, he quickly hobbled off to the locker room.
MacKinnon returned to the Colorado bench three minutes into the third period and took one shift, while the teams were in a 4-on-4 situation. Later, he returned during an Avalanche power play, with Vegas forward Mitch Marner off on a tripping minor.
Game 4 will be Tuesday night at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena.
"We still need one more," Hertl said. "For us, we need everyone. It's not just one guy or two guys. But this is a huge win for us."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.