DeBoer: 'No doubt' Fleury gaffe carried into overtime

Vegas Golden Knights head coach Pete DeBoer believes Marc-Andre Fleury's gaffe leading to the Montreal Canadiens' late third-period equalizer in Game 3 had an effect on his club in overtime.

Fleury mishandled a dump-in behind his goal and Habs forward Josh Anderson deposited the loose puck into the empty net, evening the score at 2-2 with 1:55 remaining in the final frame. Anderson then buried his second of the night in overtime.

"Those type of events are tough to recover from," DeBoer said postgame, according to NHL.com's Danny Webster. "I didn't think we were poor in overtime but there's no doubt that carried over."

Golden Knights captain Mark Stone came to the defense of his goalie.

"It was an unfortunate bounce, there's nothing you can do about it," Stone said, according to The Athletic's Jesse Granger. "Fleury has been great all year. It was one mistake and we needed to bail him out, and we didn't."

Fleury is up for the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender of 2020-21 after posting a 26-10 record in the regular season along with a .928 save percentage and 1.98 goals-against average. Coming into Friday's clash with Montreal, the 36-year-old had a .923 clip in 14 playoff games this spring.

Vegas thoroughly controlled play throughout the game, outshooting the Canadiens 45-27 while commanding 59.18% of scoring chances and 53.95% of expected goals at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Montreal leads the series 2-1 with Game 4 set for Sunday night.