Vegas Golden Knights left wing Max Pacioretty (67) skates by Carolina Hurricanes players after a Hurricanes’ goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game at T-Mobile Arena Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020.
Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020 | 11:49 p.m.
Related Content
When the Golden Knights skate off the ice on April 4, the hope is that Saturday’s result won’t have had a negative impact in the standings — or, even worse, prevented them from making the postseason.
April 4 is the last Vegas game of the regular season, a road contest against the Pacific Division-leading Canucks, who hold their spot atop the division by a single point.
The hope is that by April the Golden Knights will go on a run to win the division running away, or least make it so that their playoff seeding isn’t determined by one point. That one point is what they left on the ice on Saturday.
The Golden Knights had a two-goal lead in the third period on two occasions, but surrendered four goals in the period to the Carolina Hurricanes in a 6-5 loss in a shootout at T-Mobile Arena in the first home game in 28 days. Vegas earns one point for falling in overtime, courtesy of goal from Cody Eakin with less than four minutes remaining in regulation to even the game at five. But one point isn’t enough — it should have been two.
The third-period letdown was the first time this season Vegas allowed four goals in the final frame. Entering Saturday’s game, the Golden Knights were 23-2-1 when holding a lead after two periods. By nearly every measure, the game should have been over.
“We lost a point tonight,” forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “Going to the third period and having a two-goal lead, that’s where we want to be. Twice we let them come back and that’s on us.”
Vegas was by far the better team in the first two periods, out-chancing the Hurricanes 25-8 including an 11-2 edge in high-danger chances. Max Pacioretty, Jon Merrill and Shea Theodore had scored, and Carolina’s only tally was a bizarre Teuvo Teravainen offering that weaved its way through traffic and into the net.
But Carolina scored 1:19 into the third and were awarded a four-minute power play for a Zach Whitecloud high-stick. Even then, Chandler Stephenson scored a short-handed goal for Vegas to restore the two-goal lead. But the Hurricanes kept coming, getting goals from Erik Haula, Haydn Fleury and Martin Necas for a 5-4 advantage with 6:02 to play.
“It’s up to us to stop the bleeding and we didn’t do that tonight,” Marchessault said. “They just kept coming and coming and they were opportunistic.”
If there’s any consolation in Saturday’s outcome is that the Golden Knights had one more goal in them. Losing in regulation would have been disastrous instead of just detrimental, as the Vegas meltdown would have brought no points. But Carolina goalie James Reimer misplayed the puck coming at him and Eakin was there on the wraparound to tie it with 3:53 to play, his first goal since Nov. 23.
Vegas even had a power play in the final minute of regulation that bled into overtime, but couldn’t convert. Instead, overtime came and went, and Carolina won the shootout 2-0 to claim the two points and leave the Golden Knights holding just one.
“I’m going to chalk it up to one of those nights. We’ll learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. We’ve been playing some real solid hockey and I thought in the second and third we were our own worst enemy.”
Had the Golden Knights won they would have been in a tie with the Canucks for the division lead. Instead they’re a point back, tied with the Edmonton Oilers for second. Even worse, Edmonton has played two less games that Vegas.
The Golden Knights have been maddeningly inconsistent this season —take the recently-concluded road trip. They lost two out of three games to teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, blew a third-period lead in Boston, then came out firing to win three out of four against good Eastern teams.
They have a 28-21-7 record, which is nothing more than being one game above .500. By points percentage, they are in 17th place in the NHL.
In theory, they’re an elite team. Moneypuck.com even has them as the odds-on favorite to not only win the Pacific, but the Stanley Cup. But that’s not reality.
The reality is they are fighting for the playoffs and it may come down to the season’s final week. And in that final week, they would have sure liked to have had an extra point tonight against Carolina.
Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at twitter.com/@j15emerson.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy