Golden Knights Drop Fourth Straight in 6-4 Loss to Blue Jackets

The Vegas Golden Knights lost their fourth game in a row on Sunday, falling by a score of 6-4 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Vegas went down early after Patrik Laine scored on the power play, his 23rd of the season, but the Golden Knights answered with two goals of their own to make it 2-1.

Jonathan Marchessault tallied his 25th of the year, and William Carrier quickly followed up with his 7th just over four minutes later. Columbus answered with a pair of their own to end the period, and it was 3-2 after 20 minutes of play.

Cole Sillinger scored one of the two goals to end the first period, and he answered with two more in the second period, with one coming at 5:36 of the period, and the other coming at 7:26 to give him the first hat trick of his career. Shortly after Sillinger’s third goal, Evgenii Dadonov tallied his 12th of the season at 8:28, and the period ended with Vegas down two goals with 20 to play.

Jack Eichel picked up his fifth goal of the season, a power play tally assisted by Chandler Stephenson and Jonathan Marchessault.

Following Eichel’s goal, the score would remain 5-4 Columbus for the majority of the third period. The Golden Knights pressed on in an attempt to tie the game, but ultimately were unsuccessful. Eric Robinson found the back of an empty net to pick up his 7th goal of the season with 11 seconds left in regulation to secure Columbus’ 6-4 victory.

The Golden Knights fell short in this game for a couple of reasons, one of which was an inability to take advantage on the power play. Vegas went 1 for 4 on the man-advantage, while the Blue Jackets went 1 for 3. In terms of shots on goal, the Golden Knights were outshot 38 to 27, and only out shot the Blue Jackets in the third period 12 to 8.

Elvis Merzlikins wasn’t all that busy in net for Columbus, and he stopped 23 of 27 on the evening, including 20 of 23 at even strength, and 3 of 4 on the power play. Logan Thompson stopped 32 of 37 on the evening, including 25 of 29 at even strength, and 6 of 7 on the power play.

Vegas pressed throughout the game, and the Blue Jackets were aggressive in clogging up the lanes and preventing chances, and finished with 16 blocked shots. In terms of expected goals, the Blue Jackets outscored the Golden Knights 5 to 3.11 in all situations, and 2.6 to 2.07 in 5v5 according to Money Puck.

Additionally, here’s a look at how each player on Vegas faired in terms of GameScore impact, which is a blend of traditional metrics, and advanced metrics.

The loss drops Vegas to 32-24-4 on the year, and they will play again on Tuesday, March 15th in Winnipeg vs. the Jets in the final game of this road trip.