Golden Knights shut out at home for the first time in nearly two years

By Case Keefer (contact)

Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019 | 8 p.m.

The fans directly behind New York Rangers goalie Alexander Georgiev rose out of their rinkside seats at T-Mobile Arena and started celebrating.

The Golden Knights had finally scored. Vegas’ star-studded second line of Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone and Paul Statsny had pounded a procession of close-range shots at Georgiev late in the second period Sunday evening and one finally seemed to get through after hitting the post.

Only it hadn’t.

“Puck was in the back of the net,” Stone shrugged.

Even when things looked good for Vegas in its first game in nine days, they weren’t in reality. The Golden Knights struggled through one of their most frustrating, if not outright worst game of the season in a 5-0 loss to the Rangers.

The loss snapped a five-game point streak and marked the Golden Knights’ first shutout defeat of the year. They hadn’t failed to score since a 2-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 19 2018 two seasons ago.

“We played really well for the first 10 minutes, the chances were there,” Stone said. “Bury one or two of those, and it’s a different game but it’s a funny league. You win some that you don’t deserve to lose and you lose some that you deserve to win but ultimately you’ve got to have that killer instinct to get that first goal and get our crowd into it.”

Instead, the Rangers took the crowd of 18,236 fans out of it. Despite the Golden Knights holding a 38-25 advantage in shots on goal — a measure they dominated from the outset — the Rangers scored first when Artemi Panarin slapped one past Malcolm Subban for his team-leading 14th goal of the year.

Seconds later, out of the ensuing faceoff, Chris Kreider took advantage of an opening and made the score 2-0.

“We let down our goalie tonight,” Golden Knights forward William Carrier said.

In his seventh straight start, Maclolm Subban had arguably his roughest night with only 20 saves. But two of the Rangers’ final three goals came on power plays, via Jacob Trouba in the second period while Ryan Reaves served a four-minute penalty for high sticking and from Mika Zibanejad in the third period after Stastny was called for holding.

Georgiev, meanwhile, was impenetrable.

Pacioretty and Reilly Smith particularly pelted him with pucks in the first-period onslaught to no avail. Even when Georgiev was caught on position, he found reprieves.

Vegas fourth-liner Tomas Nosek had him beat shortly before Trouba’s goal but a shot that would have made it a one-goal game clanged off the post. It was already 4-0 by the time Pacioretty’s second-period shot caught the post.

“There were some tough breaks, no doubt,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought we played pretty well for 25-30 minutes and then I don’t think we played very well for the last 30. The push stopped when it shouldn’t have stopped.”

With the game out of reach in the third period, the Golden Knights’ primary motive turned to retribution for a second-period hit on Cody Glass that they considered dirty. The rookie was helped off the ice and did not return — Gallant offered no update on his status postgame — after Brendan Lemieux checked him into the boards and hit him in the side of the head with an elbow.

“It was a flying elbow to the head and it wasn’t called,” Gallant said. “It’s disappointing and I hope it gets looked at because I think it’s a bad hit.”

Carrier initiated a fight with Lemieux three minutes into the third period. They both landed a couple punches before being escorted to the penalty box.

“We all saw what happen; it can’t happen,” Carrier said of the hit on Glass. “I don’t know if he did it and it was on purpose or not, but he’s got to answer for what he did.”

Gallant just wished the Golden Knights had more of an answer in their second of two games this season with the Rangers, which they had beaten four straight times dating back to the inaugural season including 4-1 in New York last week. He didn’t like the lack of fight the Golden Knights showed after falling behind.

Vegas dropped to 7-6-3 on the year at home with the loss and fell further below league average with 2.91 goals per game.

“We’ve got to a find a way to score goals,” Stone said. “There are times in this league where you have to win games 6-5 or you have to win a game 2-1. You have to find ways to win games, and when bounces are going the way they’re going tonight, you have to find ways to capitalize and we didn’t do that.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.