The Vegas Golden Knights will try to avoid matching their longest losing streak of the season when they host the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night in Las Vegas.
Vegas suffered back-to back losses for just the fourth time this season, losing to the New York Islanders, 4-0, on Thursday and the New York Rangers, 2-1, on Saturday.
The Golden Knights, who lead the Pacific Division with 59 points and stand two behind the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets for most points in the NHL, lost a season-high three in a row from Oct. 15-19 at Washington, Tampa Bay and Florida.
Vegas ranks tied for fourth in the league with a 3.40 goals per game average but has managed just a Mark Stone power-play goal over the past two games. Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves in Thursday’s shutout win for the Islanders while Igor Shesterkin turned aside 29 of 30 shots for the Rangers on Saturday.
“We’re not executing at a super-high level now offensively but are still playing pretty good defensively,” Stone said. “It’s just one of those things. I think every team goes through it. You try and fight your way out of it.”
The Golden Knights had a potential go-ahead goal by Noah Hanifin at the end of the second period Saturday waived off because a video review showed the puck didn’t cross the goal line until after the clock hit 0:00. That came less than two minutes after Jack Eichel rattled the crossbar with a one-timer from the left circle. Vegas also failed to convert on one minute of a 6-on-4 advantage near the end of the game.
“I mean, we could have easily scored three or four tonight and it’s a different story,” Stone said. “I think there were chances to be had, just didn’t capitalize, so got to work through it.”
“It’s a bit of the dog days, fighting through it,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Some guys need to find their offensive game, not a lot of practice time. … We don’t have time to sit and dwell on it, just keep grinding away and find a way to find our offense.”
The game with the Wild will be the third in four nights for Vegas, and Minnesota also is playing the second half of a back-to-back.
The Wild come in off a 3-1 victory at the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, the team’s fifth win in six games. That improved Minnesota to a NHL-best 16-3-3 on the road.
Ex-Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made 36 saves to improve to 9-0-0 in his past nine starts at San Jose while Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists. Fleury improved to 6-1-0 this season in road starts with his 570th career win.
“It’s nice when we can go in the other building,” Fleury said. “I feel there’s never any panic, there’s no need to maybe do too much. We just keep it simple, lock it down, and it’s been paying off for us.”
This is the final game of a three-game homestand for the Golden Knights who, despite the losses to the Islanders and Rangers, still have one of the league’s best home ice records at 17-6-0. Vegas also has cleaned up on Western Conference opposition, going 22-3-2 including a 3-2 win over the Wild on Dec. 15 in Saint Paul, Minn., in their only previous meeting this season.
–Field Level Media
