Dorofeyev's hat trick not enough as Golden Knights come up short against Predators

After falling behind early, the Vegas Golden Knights could not complete the comeback as they fell 5-3 to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday evening at Bridgestone Arena.

The Predators were able to grab the momentum after a quiet first nine minutes as Steven Stamkos used his 13th goal of the year to make it 1-0. Less than three minutes later, Filip Forsberg added yet another score for Nashville as they opened up a 2-0 advantage that they would take into the second period.

The momentum continued to go Nashville's way in the second as Justin Barron knocked in his second goal of the season at the 14:39 mark of the period. Steven Stamkos followed him up with his second score of the evening just minutes later and the Predators quickly had total control of the game at 4-0.

With the pair of scores in the contest, Stamkos is now tied for Nashville's team lead this season at 14.

Vegas, however, finally managed to gather some positive momentum in the period as Pavel Dorofeyev found the net less than a minute later for his 17th score of the year. He was far from done, adding yet another score via the power play before the period's end that made it 4-2 heading to the third.

Continuing his red-hot scoring blaze, Dorofeyev decided to make it a hat trick with his third of the night to make it a 4-3 game with just under five minutes remaining in the contest.

It was the first career hat trick for the 24-year-old, and it comes in his fourth season as a pro. Dorofeyev has only seen his playing time increase since he made his debut in 2021, and has already passed his 2023 totals in goals and overall points.

Dorofeyev has now scored a whopping five times in his last two games to bring his 2024 total up to 19. He easily leads the team in scores following the outburst, with the next closest being Ivan Barbashev (15 goals).

The Golden Knights would unfortunately be able to complete the comeback as they failed to come up with the equalizer in the final minutes of play. In the final seconds, Nashville's Ryan O'Reilly added an empty net score to seal the 5-3 win for the Predators.

Time simply ran out for Las Vegas as they ultimately paid the price for a poor opening period on the defensive side of things. Goalie Ilya Samsonov saved 18 of 22 shots total as he fell to 11-5-1 on the year. 

It is his first time losing back-to-back games all season as the Golden Knights also came up short in a 2-1 loss to the Rangers back on January 11.

Vegas is now 29-12-3 this season but has lost three of their last four. Despite the recent struggles, they remain atop the Pacific Division with a total of 61 points.

They will continue their road trip on Friday afternoon as they head to Carolina for a battle with the Hurricanes. Carolina is currently 26-15-3 and sits in third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Puck drop is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. PT.