The Vegas Golden Knights gave up three goals in the third period in a 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena. The Oilers now lead the best-of-seven series 1-0 after taking Game 1 on the road.
The Golden Knights held a 2-0 lead in the first period but were outscored 4-0 in the final 43:34 of action. This marked the first time in franchise history that the Golden Knights lost a playoff game on home ice when holding a multi-goal lead.
The Golden Knights were without Pavel Dorofeyev and Alex Pietrangelo, who was a late scratch due to illness. Kaedan Korczak made his playoff debut, playing 13:04 and recording one shot, one block and one hit.
The game turned in the second period, but the Golden Knights were in control early. Mark Stone set the tone with two goals in the first 9:03 of the series, pulling into a tie with Jonathan Marchessault for the most playoff goals (36) in franchise history.
After Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got called for four minutes for high-sticking Tomas Hertl, the Golden Knights’ power play went to work early. A Shea Theodore point shot was first deflected by William Karlsson and then tipped into the net by Stone to give Vegas the 1-0 edge just 2:13 into the game.
The captain scored his second of the game and fourth of the playoffs midway through the period. Jack Eichel found a trailing Stone, who deked in the slot before beating Calvin Pickard five-hole.
The Golden Knights’ top line was stellar in the opening 20 minutes and had the upper hand against Edmonton’s top unit. However, the Oilers capitalized when Vegas’ top line was on the bench, and Corey Perry broke through to cut the deficit to one. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid went to work in transition, and McDavid found Perry alone in front to make it 2-1 at 16:26.
The Golden Knights’ penalty kill was tested for the first time five minutes into the second period, and it came through with flying colors, with Adin Hill making a key pad stop on McDavid and the Golden Knights holding off Edmonton’s high-flying power play.
The Golden Knights took a second penalty five minutes later to give the Oilers’ man-advantage another opportunity to reset the score, but Vegas answered with an impressive kill, with Hill making several key stops. The Oilers recorded five shots on the two power plays, but Hill had an answer for all of them.
But the ice had shifted in the second period, with Edmonton carrying the play with a 27-11 edge in Corsi, a 12-1 advantage in shots and all five high-danger chances. The Oilers led 10-3 in high-danger chances and had 2.76 expected goals (compared to Vegas’ 1.0) through two periods, but Hill’s 21 saves enabled Vegas to take a 2-1 lead into the third period.
That lead evaporated quickly, as the Oilers tied the game less than a minute into the final frame. It was a fluke goal, but Draisaitl made a smart play to bat the puck out of the air and bank it off Hill to make it a 2-2 game.
The Golden Knights made a few adjustments for the third period, improving zone exits and sustaining more time in the offensive zone. They held the Oilers without a shot for more than 10 minutes, but they were unable to take the lead. Eventually, the Oilers beat them to it.
After a Brandon Saad turnover just inside the Edmonton blue line, the Oilers scored in transition on a goal by Zach Hyman, who shot it off the post and in with 3:02 remaining.
The Golden Knights looked for the equalizer, but Connor Brown netted the insurance marker with 1:46 to go after making a move on Theodore, who was the lone defenseman on the ice. Brown undressed Theodore before lifting the puck over Hill to make it 4-2.
In the end, the Oilers scored four unanswered goals, three of which came in the third period, to ice the win in Game 1. They outshot Vegas 28-17, led 14-7 in high-danger chances and owned a 60.37 percent expected goal share.
The Golden Knights had a rough second period but survived due to the play of Hill. Even after the unlucky Draisaitl goal, this game was there for the taking. The Golden Knights failed to take advantage of the goalie mismatch, firing just seven total shots on net in the final two periods.
Edmonton, meanwhile, secured yet another comeback win, the club’s fifth consecutive in the playoffs. Pickard stopped 15 of 17 shots and is now 5-0 this postseason.
Hill finished the game with 24 saves on 28 shots for an .857 save percentage. He didn’t shut down the Oilers in the third, but he gave Vegas every chance to win this game. The Golden Knights can’t expect to be successful when they’re outshot 22-9 and trail 31-13 in scoring chances at 5-on-5.
The fact that Vegas won the special teams battle but still lost the game says a lot about how poorly Vegas executed in Game 1. Also, Vegas knew coming into this series that no lead was safe against this Oilers club, but there was no desperation to extend the lead when things began to unravel in the second. The effort will have to be much more consistent Thursday night in Game 2.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.