Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Golden Knights fall short in final game before break

Engelland

Charles Krupa / AP

Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland (5) tries to clear Boston Bruins Anton Blidh, right, away from the goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.

BOSTON — There are positives and negatives about going 5-for-5 on the penalty kill in a game, as the Golden Knights did Tuesday.

The good is obvious. They didn’t allow a goal in five opportunities against the third-ranked power play in the league, frustrating the Boston Bruins and keeping themselves in the game until they had a chance to take the lead.

The bad is that they were short-handed five times. It takes something out of a team needing to kill that many penalties, as lines get jumbled coming off the penalty-killing units and players need to play high-intensity shifts.

It’s not the only reason, surely, but the early penalties were a factor in the Golden Knights losing a third-period lead for only the third time this season and falling to the Bruins 3-2 at TD Garden.

Vegas fell to 20-2-1 when leading after two periods.

“Despite the fact we killed them off, it takes a toll on you and you get to the third period and it’s tough to find energy at the end of the road trip when you start that way,” coach Peter DeBoer said.

That was the positive takeaway of the game, that the penalty kill was that good. The Bruins scored at a 26.3% clip with an extra man coming into the game, and David Pastrnak was third in the NHL in power-play points. Yet the Bruins were held without a goal on just three shots on goal, already implementing DeBoer’s system.

One of the focuses of DeBoer's practices has been the penalty kill, particularly disrupting the opponents’ zone entries. Considering that the Sharks did have the best short-handed unit in the league when he was there and still do, it’s one place where DeBoer is already making his mark on the team.

“We were in sync,” forward Mark Stone said. “I thought we did a good job keeping the shifts short, rolling over guys. It's usually when you score power play goals when you tire out the PK. We got good clears and were able to get off the ice and get fresh guys out there."

But the issue emerged in the third period. Through two periods, the Bruins controlled possession at 5-on-5, though it was the Golden Knights who led 2-1. It was like looking at the opposite of Vegas games where recently it seems the underlying numbers favor the Golden Knights but the score doesn’t.

Jake DeBrusk beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a beauty of a shot at 4:26 of the third, then David Krejci capitalized on a rebound at 12:18 to give Boston its first lead of the game. For a team that had been nearly unbeatable with a lead after two periods, this one hurt.

“They’ve done that a lot this year, come back. They don’t change the way they play,” Stone said. “It’ll be a good learning example for us. We kind of let our foot off the gas, but we’ve got to give them a little bit of credit, too.”

The loss took away the excitement of Nicolas Hague’s first goal. It was the kind of goal that the team envisions him scoring plenty of, using his 6-foot-6 frame to lean into a slapshot and blast it by the goalie. That shot from the right circle on the power play at 10:59 turned out to be Vegas’ last goal of the game, giving them a 2-1 lead at the time.

It’s a shame for Hague, who sat somberly at his locker instead of gleefully waiting for the media to arrive like many rookies do after their first tally. He enjoyed the goal in the moment, of course, but the outcome of the game put a damper on his evening.

“I was definitely enjoying it in the moment. It was a dream come true for me,” he said. “It sucks the way the game ended. Obviously, we want better and too bad I couldn’t score another one I guess.”

The Golden Knights will have plenty of time to think about this one. They are off for the next nine days between the All-Star break this weekend and the subsequent bye week. They went 1-2-1 on the first leg of the season-long road trip with four games against playoff contenders on the other side of it.

A win tonight would have put the Golden Knights in first place going into the break, something that could have buoyed their spirits during a turbulent time not only in the season, but during the franchise’s young history. They had a four-game losing streak, fired their coach and still had a chance to pick up five of eight points on the road trip as late as the third period.

They’ll use the bye week to rest up and refuel before the season’s final 30 games.

“There was some good, but when you look at the overall, not good enough to come into a building like this to win,” DeBoer said. “We’re not where we want to be going into the break. I think we have some work to do and it’s going to be a sprint to the finish line.”

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