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Golden Knights Fall 5-4 in Overtime to Vancouver Canucks

Posted on by Tom Urtz Jr.

The Vegas Golden Knights tied the game in the final minute of the third period with Robin Lehner pulled to earn a point, but were defeated less than a minute into overtime on Tuesday. To make matters even worse, the Dallas Stars, Nashville Predators, and Los Angeles Kings all won, so the Golden Knights now sit three points out of a playoff spot.

Mark Stone made his long awaited return to the lineup, and played 17:17, including 4:22 on the power play, and 0:21 on the penalty kill. He was kept off the scoresheet, and finished with three shots on goal, one hit, and two takeaways while also being a -1. Lehner faced 27 shots, and stopped 22 of them, including 20 of 23 at even strength and 2 of 4 on the power play.

For the umpteenth time in recent weeks, special teams played a pivotal role in this game, as the Golden Knights went 0 for 3 on the power play vs. the Canucks, and now have failed to score on 18 consecutive power plays. During those power plays they only recorded just one shot on goal, which is not what’s supposed to happen when your opponent is shorthanded.

Vancouver, on the other hand, went 2 for 3, scoring with the man-advantage to earn their first two goals of the game. The Canucks took four shots during their power plays, and were quite efficient in doing so.

Bo Horvat continued his amazing campaign to date with his 31st of the year at 1:04 of the period, and 16 minutes later Alec Martinez was credited with his first goal of the 2021-22 season.

The Canucks once again got on the board early in the second, this time capitalizing 1:27 into the period with Vasily Podkolzin tallying his 11th of the season Less than two minutes later Elias Pettersson tallied his 26th of the season, and at that moment it looked like things were going to spiral out of control.

Fortunately Mike Amadio responded 1:10 later with his 9th goal of the season, and the score remained 3-2 for a good chunk of the period.

Brad Richardson gave the Canucks a two-goal lead when Pettersson set him up for his 4th goal of the season, and Vancouver ended the period looking to go into the third and shut things down.

For most of the third period the Golden Knights controlled play, and they out shot the Canucks 17 to 5. Shea Theodore made it a one-goal game 5:27 into the third period, firing home a wrister from the right circle.

After the goal the Golden Knights continued to press on, but were unable to find the tying goal for most of the period. They had their chances, including another power play, but once again were unable to capitalize. Late in the third the Canucks made a slight push, and Lehner had to come up big to make some stops, and doing so kept the Golden Knights in the game late.

Pete DeBoer decided to pull Lehner with less than 2:00 to play, and Vegas cycled the puck once they set up in the Vancouver zone.

It took a bit, but eventually Theodore put a puck past Thatcher Demko for a second time to earn the Golden Knights a point, and the opportunity to earn one more in overtime.

Ultimately that didn’t happen, as the Golden Knights failed to possess the puck in overtime. Quinn Hughes went on to score the game-winning goal, and he put himself in an opportunity to capitalize when he pushed Jack Eichel out of the slot.

The puck was loose off a rebound kicked out by Lehner, but Eichel never gained control of the puck. You could make an argument that this is a case of crosschecking or interference, but nothing was called on the play. The fact remains is that the Golden Knights had opportunities in regulation to avoid overtime, but were unable to capitalize.

Vegas will be in action again on Thursday vs. the Calgary Flames, and that matchup looks to be even tougher than the game just played against the Vancouver Canucks.

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