Golden Knights allow season-high 7 goals to Jets, lose fifth straight

By Danny Webster

Published Tuesday, March 15, 2022 | 7:34 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, March 15, 2022 | 9:37 p.m.

Things looked promising for the Golden Knights in the first period. Then, a fight happened.

All the momentum that was on Vegas' side went away quickly in the first period, and the Winnipeg Jets put an emphatic cap on the Golden Knights' road trip with a 7-3 loss at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

It was the Golden Knights' fifth consecutive loss, all coming in regulation for the first time in team history. They lost five in a row twice before, but both streaks involved an overtime loss. Nicolas Roy and Alex Pietrangelo scored, and Laurent Brossoit made nine saves in his return to Winnipeg, but gave up four goals in less than two periods.

"I was really liking a lot of things we were doing. I was proud of the group, how hard we played," coach Pete DeBoer said. "I thought the guys came and worked their asses off for 60 minutes. We're in that sport where we need everything firing on all cylinders. ... If one of those areas is off, we're not going to win."

The seven goals allowed were a season-high for the Golden Knights, putting a cap in what was a horrendous five-game stint away from home. Vegas was outscored 23-11 in the five games, with 18 of them coming in the last three games alone.

But the first period was where the games were decided over the past week. It was a strong start from the Golden Knights, recording the first seven shots on goal. Defensively, they held the Jets without a shot on goal for the first 12:26. The game tilted at the 10:45 mark when Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar and Jets defenseman Logan Stanley dropped the gloves, seemingly to ignite a spark for the home team.

The Jets outshot the Golden Knights 9-0 in the final seven minutes, capped with two goals in 33 seconds from Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor to give Winnipeg a 2-0 lead after the first 20 minutes.

Vegas dropped to 4-14-0 this season when trailing in the first period and was outscored 9-2 in the opening frame.

"We probably could've started well," Pietrangelo said. "We need a little more emotion right now. This time of year, heading into the playoffs, we need emotion."

Roy cut the lead in half almost seven minutes into the second period with his 11th goal, but Winnipeg added two more goals within a span of 2:05 to push the lead to 4-1 and end Brossoit's return to Winnipeg. The goalie, who spent the past three seasons with Winnipeg before signing in Vegas last summer, was pulled for Logan Thompson after Stanley scored his first goal of the season and pushed the lead to three.

Thompson gave up three goals on 10 shots two nights after giving up five goals in a loss to Columbus.

With starting goalie Robin Lehner on injured reserve due to a lower-body injury, the options for the Golden Knights in the crease are greatly limited. That being said, DeBoer did not sound pleased with the play of his goaltending.

"Just didn't get in front of enough pucks," DeBoer said. "I'm not a goaltending expert, but you've got to get in front of a couple."

The Golden Knights were already behind the Edmonton Oilers for third place in the Pacific Division by way of points percentage, but thanks to Edmonton's 7-5 win over the Detroit Red Wings, the Oilers surpassed Vegas in points with two games in hand. At the time of publishing, the Vancouver Canucks are closing the gap on Vegas trailing by one point with a game in hand.

The good news is the Golden Knights finally return home after a forgettable road trip. The bad news is their first game back Thursday is against the third-best team in the NHL, the Florida Panthers.

"Take the day tomorrow, get our heads right, get our bodies right," Pietrangelo said. "Because that's the best team in the NHL right now."

Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.