The Vegas Golden Knights suffered a 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night at Amalie Arena.
It was another exciting game between these two clubs, but the Golden Knights were unable to come away with any points in their second straight regulation loss. The last time Vegas lost two straight in regulation was Nov. 5 and Nov. 8.
Jiri Patera made his second start of the season, turning aside 31 of 36 shots for an .861 save percentage in his first career NHL loss.
As was the case in Tuesday’s tilt in Carolina, the Golden Knights yielded four goals in the second period. Once again, the Golden Knights struggled on the penalty kill, as Tampa Bay converted on back-to-back power plays in the middle frame.
Though Vegas tied the game midway through the third, the Lightning scored the game-winning goal with just 1:13 remaining to take the win and the two points.
Vegas is 0-2-0 on its current road trip and 21-8-5 on the year.
The Golden Knights opened the scoring 11:40 into the opening frame when Jonathan Marchessault cleaned up a loose puck in front following a deflection by Paul Cotter.
The play started with Chandler Stephenson winning a board battle and eventually getting the puck to Brayden McNabb at the point. Cotter deflected McNabb’s shot, and the puck landed in front of the former Lightning to give Vegas a 1-0 lead.
The Golden Knights got multiple bodies to the net, leaving no chance for Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Vegas extended its lead to 2-0 when Ivan Barbashev found twine with 3:02 remaining in the first period. Jack Eichel won a board battle and got the puck to Mark Stone, who collected it and made a great play to set up Barbashev for the one-timer on an open net. Once again, Vegas left Vasilevskiy no chance.
The assist extended Eichel’s franchise-high point streak to 12 games.
Though the Golden Knights came out strong in the second period, the Lightning flipped the script with four unanswered goals.
The first came at 8:25 when Alex Barré-Boulet beat Patera on a deflection to get the home team on the board.
The other three came in the span of just 2:55.
The Lightning were able to strike twice on the power play, first cashing in on a 5-on-3 and then capitalizing on the ensuing 5-on-4 to take a 3-2 lead at 16:28.
A healthy scrap between Barbashev and Brandon Hagel put Vegas on the man-advantage, but Stone got called for tripping. Alex Pietrangelo then lifted the puck over the glass, setting up a 5-on-3 for the Lightning.
Tampa Bay came into this game with the third-ranked power play (and first-ranked on home ice), and it showed.
NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov scored on the two-man advantage, beating Patera — sans goalie stick — on the one-timer.
The Lightning proceeded to make the most of the second power play as well, as the puck deflected right to the stick of Brayden Point, who made a diving play to beat Patera top-shelf. Tampa Bay got behind the Vegas skaters on the play, and the Golden Knights’ penalty kill was unable to neutralize Point.
The two goals were scored just 33 seconds apart.
The Bolts added another one in the final 1:10 of the period to make it 4-2 after two.
Point was given a wide-open look in the slot and hit the post, but Vegas was unable to get to the puck or tie up any Tampa sticks; Point made his second diving play for his second goal of the night (and 16th of the season).
Despite the turn of events, the Golden Knights bounced back with an impressive effort in the third period, pulling even at 4-4 just before the midway mark of the frame.
It started with a big Patera stop on a Kucherov breakaway; Kucherov protested the lack of call on the play, resulting in an unsportsmanlike minor. This gave Vegas a critical power play 5:15 into the third.
Marchessault got Vegas’ special teams involved in a positive way with a power-play goal for his second tally of the night and team-best 17th of the season.
Cotter — who had an excellent game — then netted the equalizer at 9:44, capping off a stellar shift by the William Karlsson unit.
The game seemed destined for overtime, but a Point shot was kicked out to Nicholas Paul at the left circle. Patera tried to get across but had an equipment snag, allowing Paul to score from an odd angle to give Tampa Bay the 5-4 lead at 18:47.
The Golden Knights pulled Patera but were unable to set up in the zone until there were roughly 15 seconds left. That being said, Vegas had two great chances, including a one-timer by Eichel that slipped through Vasilevskiy temporarily, but the Lightning held on for the victory.
The Golden Knights played very well at times but did not deliver a 60-minute performance, and it cost them.
For the third game in a row, the penalty kill gave up multiple goals, bringing its efficiency to a combined 5-for-12 (41.2 percent) in the last three contests.
It also marked the fifth time in the last six games that Vegas surrendered four-plus goals.
The second period is usually a strength for Vegas and a weakness for Tampa Bay, as outlined in the preview. However, that’s not at all how things panned out.
“We have to address what we need to do better in some of these periods that are getting away from us,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Cassidy discussed the importance of not allowing a 5-on-3 goal to “snowball into a two-goal deficit. For us, we gotta be able to put the breaks on that, get back to our game, bend but don’t break, so to speak, and we weren’t able to do that.”
Discipline played a role, as two unnecessary mistakes gave Tampa Bay an opportunity to tie the game and take the lead.
“Especially on the road, you’re gonna have to be able to play through it and just keep your composure and take care of the details and manage the puck, and little things that don’t allow them to get back in the game,” Cassidy said.
The Vegas bench boss didn’t think there were “massive breakdowns,” but rather that the Golden Knights were “outworked in the slot on a couple of goals, where we’re typically very good and hard to play against. For a stretch tonight, we weren’t,” he said.
Eichel also lamented the costly penalties.
“It’s tough taking penalties against a top power play like that,” Eichel said. “It’s not easy, and they capitalize.”
Eichel said special teams was “definitely a factor” in the loss.
But Vegas recovered in the final 20 minutes.
“I thought we had a great third period,” Cassidy said. “I know we deserved better after that period. We did a lot of things well.”
Unlike Tuesday in Carolina, the Golden Knights got a lot of the details right in this one.
They scored the first goal and took a 2-0 lead in a solid first period on the road, fought back and tied the game in the first half of the third period, won board battles, went to the net, scored on the power play and came up with a key kill in the third period.
But in the end, it wasn’t enough.
“It’s tough to find positives when you don’t get any points here,” Eichel said. “You played a good third period and gave yourself a chance to win, and it’s always a heartbreaker when you give up a goal late in regulation.”
The Golden Knights will look to snap this losing streak when they return to Sunrise to take on the Florida Panthers for the first time since the Stanley Cup Final.
(Photo of William Carrier, Barré-Boulet, Zach Whitecloud: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports)