Golden Knights give up three unanswered, lose in shootout against Flames

CALGARY -- The Vegas Golden Knights fail in the shootout, 5-4 after giving up three unanswered goals to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday at the Scotiabank Saddledome. 

While Vegas hits two shots off the post, the lone shootout goal belongs to forward Morgan Frost, who waits and beats goaltender Ilay Samsonov glove side. Not aligned with their interest, the Golden Knights are 1-0-5 in shootouts this season with their only win was against the Flyers back in November. 

It was a unique situation for the Golden Knights, who went into the game with everything in hand including three previous victories this season against the Flames. Meanwhile, Calgary had everything hanging in the balance, knowing they needed to win out and get some help from other teams to qualify for the postseason. 

With all they accomplished during the regular season, Vegas was fortunate to be in a position to rest certain players including Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Adin Hill, Alex Pietranglo and Noah Hanifin. 

"You want to give your top guys rest, especially those who went to the Four Nations and give them a break to recharge," Golden Knights' forward Keegan Kolesar said.

It was expected that Calgary would come into the game with an edge, yet Vegas looked like the better team overall, dominating through the first two periods and outshooting their opponent 42-28.   

"I thought we played really well, to be honest," Golden Knights' head coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I'm sitting here and I can't believe we lost... All in all, I thought it was a good effort. We just came out on the wrong side." 

Forward Pavel Dorofeyev (34) gave Vegas the first lead of the game with a little over five minutes into the opening period. The team's leader in goals scored, created the chance after forcing a turnover in Calgary’s end and staying with the puck after it pinballs off a couple of skaters, and goes into the net off the stick of defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. 

"I thought we just did a good job of getting pucks in deep and supporting each other all over the ice, making those small plays and find the back of the net," Golden Knights' forward Brandon Saad said. 

Six seconds after Tanner Pearson was called for a hooking penalty, Frost found his 14th goal of the season while on the power play to tie it. 

Vegas’ fourth line, who finished with six shots on net, buried the go-ahead goal a little over five minutes left in the period. 

Before Nicolas Roy scored his career high 15th goal of the season, Kolesar chipped the puck up the board to forward Ivan Barbashev, turning his head and making an impressive back-hand pass to spring Roy, who produced a couple of dekes on the breakaway chance to get the puck in the back of the net. 

With less than 30 seconds left, Tomas Hertl earned his 32nd goal of the year and extended the Golden Knights’ lead to 3-1. With Hertl and Dorofeyev in front of the crease, Saad wrapped around from behind the net seeing that the Flames’ defenders were focused on Dorofeyev, which left Hertl with a wide open chance on netminder Dustin Wolf. 

After a scoreless second period where the Flames looked checked out following the Wild and Blues’ results, they quickly evened the score early in the third period, lighting the lamp twice in 32 seconds. Nazem Kadri snapped home the team’s second power play goal of the evening, and Mikael Backlund found the equalizer through the five-hole of Samsonov. 

Calgary would eventually score their third unanswered goal in the period at the 12 minute mark to take their first lead, following the backdoor tap-in by defenseman Adam Klapka. 

Vegas, however, immediately knotted things up 11 seconds later following Saad’s third point (1 G, 2 A) of the contest. Calgary would use their coach’s challenge because they believed Saad pushed their defenseman Jake Bean into Wolf, but it was deemed that it wasn’t enough for the goal to be overturned.

"He's been consistent every night," Cassidy said about Saad's performance. "This guy hasn't played a lot for us, probably deserves to play a little more, but I like his game. He's a no maintenance guy, very predictable and consistent."   

After missing the last eight games with an upper body, Samsonov returned to the Vegas net and finished with 24 saves and a .857 SV%. 

With tonight’s results from around the league, it is official that the Vegas Golden Knights will be taking on the Minnesota Wild for the opening round of the playoffs. The dates and times for the upcoming games are still to be announced. 

"I mean for us it's about us," Saad said. "It's exciting to know (who) you're gonna match up against and this week clean up for playoffs. I know we're all excited." 

Vegas has won all three meetings against Minnesota including a dominant 5-1 road win on March 25, where Eichel achieved his fifth career hat-trick.  

The Golden Knights will travel to Vancouver to close out the regular season against the Canucks on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

"For us, it's just about keeping our detail and our habits going into playoffs," Saad said.