That last Vegas Golden Knights goal, when everybody seemed to be in desperation mode, when it never should have gotten that far with the time left on the clock, saddled Skinner with the 4-3 loss. If you were grading his performance, maybe give him a C. He had some very good moments for sure, including robbing Ivan Barbashev with his glove in alone in the third period, and a circus paddle save as he dove backwards to stuff Tomas Hertl’s wraparound in the second period.

But overall it wasn’t enough in his first outing in two weeks, replacing the injured Calvin Pickard.

Stick With Pick had become the storyline as he won six in a row. But with Pickard not even dressing as the backup Saturday — likely out with a left leg issue from Game 2 — Skinner was thrown into the fire and was as good as Adin Hill in the Vegas net until the last second soiled it. The loss wasn’t on him but it was still a L, giving up four goals. Pickard also gave up four in Game 2 in Vegas, but he won because the Oilers scored five.

Bottom line: The Oilers’ No. 1 goalie who got them to the Stanley Cup final last June in Florida is a gut-punch 0-3 in the playoffs. Pickard is 6-0.

‘Put him in difficult situations’
What did Skinner see on the last goal? He was concentrating on Smith, but if we’re being honest everybody else saw a fair bit of panic from the home side.

“Karlsson just threw it out there (from behind the net), which I knew he’d do. I thought he (Smith) would shoot it right away because he didn’t have much time. I sprawled, got out there, stayed with him another half-second and he catches us with 0.4 seconds left. Yeah, devastating,” said Skinner, who was looking toward OT like the other 18,500 fans at Rogers Place.

But, really, Vegas deserved to win. It just took them that long to officially do it.

“Stuff happens, good bounces, bad bounces. Happens for everybody,” said Skinner, who watched Connor McDavid’s pass to Zach Hyman rip off the blade of Brayden McNabb and past Hill to tie it 3-3 with three minutes left.

“For me it felt like the game was pretty quick, especially in the first five minutes until I settled down. Obviously I had lots of energy, lots of excitement, first game in awhile, first (playoff) game at home,” said Skinner, who faced 24 shots, including at least half a dozen in the high-danger category. “Nice to go back in there but not the result we wanted, obviously.”

Whether Pickard is back in net for this series is a story for another day. It’s about how fast he heals after Hertl fell on the back of his leg in Vegas. He’s out day-to-day, according to head coach Kris Knoblauch.

For what it’s worth, Knoblauch didn’t feel there were any bad goals on Skinner.

“We just put him in difficult situations to defend,” he said. And he’s right.

‘Got in under the wire’
It was the second time the Oilers have lost in the last 30 seconds in the playoffs. It happened in Los Angeles in Game 1 after McDavid willed them to a 5-5 tie late, only to have Phillip Danault beat Skinner late on a 3-on-2 break.