Road woes carry on for Golden Knights in loss at Blackhawks

On the second night of their back-to-back, the Vegas Golden Knights once again could not get the job done as they fell 5-3 at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night at the United Center.

Needing to take advantage and get back on track against the last-place Blackhawks, Victor Olofsson did a nice job to break the ice and get the Golden Knights on the board first. He delivered his tenth score of the season as Vegas grabbed the early momentum. 

It was the 29-year-old's 100th career goal, which also gave him his 200th career point. It's Olofsson's first year as a member of the Golden Knights after spending the first six seasons of his career with the Buffalo Sabres.

The Blackhawks, however, ended the period with a surge of goals to take control of the contest.

Lukas Reichel and Tyler Bertuzzi each scored within 40 seconds of each other at the 4:00 and 3:20 marks respectively. With 18 seconds remaining in the opening period, Taylor Hall also added a goal of his own as Chicago quickly opened up a 3-1 advantage.

Tomas Hertl single-handedly helped provide the answer for the Golden Knights in the second period, delivering his 14th and 15th goals to even the game at 3.

His second score, which came on a Vegas power play, saw him cash in as he nicely deflected Shea Theodore's initial attempt into the net. Hertl has now scored four times in his last four games and is tied for second on the team in goals.

Keeping with the nature of the back-and-forth affair, Chicago once again lept into the lead late in the second. Seth Jones used his fourth goal of the year to make it 4-3 Blackhawks as things headed to the third and final period.

In the third, Tyler Bertuzzi used his second goal of the game, as well as his second via the power play, to extend the lead to 5-3 for Chicago. They would keep Vegas out of the net the rest of the way to secure the victory and snap their four-game losing streak.

As for the Golden Knights, they now have a three-game losing streak to worry about. They are now 11-8-3 on the road this season and have only two road wins since December 28.

Goalie Ilya Samsonov saved 18 of 23 shots as he took his third consecutive loss and fell to 11-6-1. His last victory came on January 7 in a 4-2 defeat of the San Jose Sharks.

The squad did a poor job of capitalizing on their strong start to the opening period, which was a point of emphasis as to the team's recent struggles for head coach Bruce Cassidy.

"That's part of it," he said. "We had a bad six minutes. [We] did that the other night in Carolina so it's a bit of an issue for us right now is our bad stretches. We're not putting out fires and limiting the damage, we did a much better job of that earlier in the year."

At 29-14-3 following an 0-3-0 road trip, Vegas will head home as they look to right the ship. They will host the St. Louis Blues (22-21-4) on Monday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena.

Puck drop is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. PT.