The Vegas Golden Knights finish a three-game road trip Monday in the city where it started four days earlier — Salt Lake City.
Vegas defeated the Utah Mammoth 4-1 on Thursday before flying to California for a Pacific Division showdown on Saturday with the first-place Anaheim Ducks. The Golden Knights extended their point streak to six games but continued to struggle in overtime, falling to 1-7 with a 4-3 loss.
Now it’s back to Utah to face a Mammoth team that ended a four-game losing streak (0-1-3) with a 3-2 victory over the visiting New York Rangers on Saturday.
Defenseman Nick DeSimone broke a 2-2 tie midway through the third period with what proved to be the game-winner, a slap shot that deflected off the stick of Rangers forward Taylor Raddysh and through the pads of Jonathan Quick.
Clayton Keller and JJ Peterka also scored for the Mammoth. It was Peterka’s fifth goal in the last six games.
Utah coach Andre Tourigny, who said, “In hockey you either win or you learn … we need to learn from what happened,” after Thursday’s loss to Vegas, was much more upbeat after his team’s bounce-back win over the Rangers.
“Saturday night against the Rangers, two points, what a beautiful night in Utah, eh?” Tourigny said with a big smile. “I cannot be more proud of the battle level, the way we drove the net, the way we moved the puck quick, and we won battles. And there’s a lot of guys I’m proud of. A lot of guys. … That was fun to coach that game.”
Tourigny said he gave his team “the midnight rule” to celebrate the win.
“Great, celebrate, good job,” Tourigny said. “But it doesn’t mean anything anymore. We just have two more points. We have to get ready for the next game in front of our fans against Vegas.”
Despite losing for the seventh time in eight games that went beyond regulation and blowing an early 2-0 lead, the Golden Knights left Anaheim upbeat.
“The fans got their money’s worth in terms of excitement,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “There was some good offense, some good saves, some physicality, a lot of good things. … I thought there were a lot of positives tonight.”
The one negative was another overtime loss. Mitch Marner lost the puck coming out from behind his own net and Cutter Gauthier spun around and quickly fired a shot from the slot through goalie Akira Schmid’s pads for the game-winner.
“Overtime, it’s another case where we don’t manage the puck,” Cassidy said. “It’s happened in four or five overtimes. At some point we have to get better in that area.”
“Obviously, it’s tough because … like, seven overtime losses,” said forward Tomas Hertl, whose power-play goal gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead. “A couple extra points we’re losing right now.”
Vegas fell two points behind the first-place Ducks with the loss. Had the Golden Knights won in overtime, they would have moved into a tie for the top spot.
“That’s a three or four-point swing right there,” defenseman Zach Whitecloud said. “That’s how we were looking at it going into the game, and those are the games that are exciting. Those are big challenges. They’re the best in the Pacific right now and every team is trying to measure up against one another.”
–Field Level Media
