Golden Knights fail to solve Wild again in 4-2 loss

By Justin Emerson

Monday, Jan. 21, 2019 | 7:05 p.m.

The question wasn’t about Brandon Pirri specifically, but teammates were still ready to jump to his defense.

The question to Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch was whether Monday’s 4-2 home loss to the Minnesota Wild was a game of missed opportunities.

“If you’re talking about Pirri’s, I think I’ve missed worse than that,” Tuch said.

It wasn’t just that one, but a game of missed opportunities it was. Pirri missed a wide-open look in the crease in the second period, the Golden Knights failed to convert during 1:11 of 5-on-3 time in the third period, and the Golden Knights fell for the fourth time in five meetings all-time against the Wild.

“I think we were swinging too much, I think we gave up too many odd-man rushes, I don’t think we played good,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “That’s not everybody, but that’s a fair amount of them.”

Pirri’s missed shot from the crease inches from the red line was frustrating, but far from the only missed chance Monday.

In the third period, one frame after the Golden Knights fired 19 shots at Minnesota netminder Devan Dubnyk, Vegas had only eight, including a 10-minute, 21-second stretch without a shot on goal.

Vegas had 49 seconds of power-play time 15 seconds into the third before Marcus Foligno flung the puck over the glass, and the Golden Knights sent five forwards over the boards. The 5-on-3 felt big at the time, and there was a deflation around the arena when the Wild killed it off.

Vegas had one shot on goal with two extra men, though two shots missed the net and one was blocked. Overall Vegas was 1-for-5 on the power play.

“I think that was a big turning point and we need that power play to come through there,” defenseman Colin Miller said. “The power play came through once tonight but didn’t come through enough.”

Vegas pulled goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with 1:23 left in the game, and initially lined up with six forwards before sending Miller out with 43 seconds left. Mikko Koivu scored an empty-net goal with 12 seconds left to ice it, the Minnesota captain’s 200th career goal.

Monday’s game was a symptom of longstanding trouble with the Wild. Vegas’ lone win against them came in Minnesota in the second game of the season, and it took a shootout to decide. It was the only one-goal game the two teams have played, as the Wild have won the other four decisions by a combined score of 17-8.

They are one of two teams the Golden Knights have not beaten in regulation in their short history (the St. Louis Blues are the other). Chalk it up in part to the type of style Minnesota plays.

“They’re definitely good defensively. Sometimes it’s a boring game against them,” Miller said. “Those are the teams that are tough to play against — teams that are really good defensively, good on draws, stuff like that. Good at collapsing in their D-zone.”