Golden Knights survive Game 4 in OT, even series against Mammoth

SALT LAKE CITY — John Tortorella’s morning skate press conference lasted 1 minute, 13 seconds.

He fielded five questions. Three times, he gave the same response verbatim.

“We’re ready to play,” he said.

It turns out the Vegas Golden Knights were, indeed, ready to play at the start. Then the rest of the game happened.

The final 35 minutes produced one of the more unforgettable meltdowns from this core. Fortunately for the Knights, they narrowly avoided that.

This series, somehow, is tied heading back to Las Vegas.

Defenseman Shea Theodore scored with 51.5 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Knights — despite blowing a three-goal lead — hung on to defeat the Utah Mammoth 5-4 in Game 4 of their first-round series at Delta Center on Monday.

The best-of-seven series is now tied 2-2. Game 5 is at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday.

That still happened despite Pavel Dorofeyev having a potential winning goal overturned because Jack Eichel was offside on a zone entry.

The Knights jumped out to a 3-0 lead after fourth-line winger Cole Smith tipped home a short-side goal 3:26 into the second period.

Dorofeyev scored his first goal of the postseason 1:12 into the game, and Brett Howden added a short-handed goal with 1:22 left in the period.

Utah bounced back with two goals in 29 seconds from center Nick Schmaltz and defenseman Ian Cole to cut the lead to one.

The Mammoth seized momentum from there.

Moments after an offensive-zone collision between Rasmus Andersson and Colton Sissons that would have restored a two-goal lead, Utah tied it at 1:45 of the third on a goal from winger Michael Carcone.

Mammoth captain Clayton Keller scored the fourth straight goal at 5:10 for the lead.

Howden scored his second on a deflection to tie it 4-4 with 9:35 left in regulation.

There were going to be moments in this series where experience would play a factor.

The Knights, the veteran group that’s been in this situation before, didn’t let the 4-2 loss in Game 3 deter them.

They were confident. They stuck to the true definition of insanity by doing the same thing repetitively and expecting different results.

It took a bit to get there, but they got the different results while stealing back home-ice advantage in the process.