LAS VEGAS -- The people who said the Vegas Golden Knights needed to do more at the trade deadline must be feeling vindicated.
On Friday, the Golden Knights fell into another early hole and never came back, falling 4-1 to the Minnesota Wild.
The new-look fourth line featuring trade deadline acquisitions Nic Dowd and Cole Smith with Colton Sissons had an excellent start to the game, producing two breakaways during the first period. Despite some genuine menace from the Wild late, they would not find the net until past the end of the period, resulting in a scoreless tie after 20 minutes.
“I knew I was playing with two good players,” said Dowd.
“I knew if worst come to worst, I could lean on them. [Sissons] is a natural center, I’ve been facing him for years…[Smith] has been in the league now for a while. It’s fortunate to play with two really good players.”
Once the second period hit, however, disaster struck.
The deluge began after a Noah Hanifin back pass was misread, followed by Mats Zuccarello hustling to the puck and firing it over Akira Schmid to get the scoring started for Minnesota.
Shortly after, a pair of point shots added to the Wild lead. Zach Bogosian would beat Schmid clean to make it 2-0, while Michael McCarron would deflect a Brock Faber shot to put the Golden Knights in an all-too-familiar three-goal deficit in just over four minutes.
“It’s unfortunate that they had those minutes,” said Jack Eichel.
“I thought we did a lot of good things in the second period, and, you know, the third as well. And so back to the drawing board, I guess, and prepare for Sunday.”
With the need for a comeback, Vegas would get started on the power play. Eichel was able to locate Pavel Dorofeyev beside the net through a slew of Minnesota defenders. Dorofeyev would then roof the puck over Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson for his second straight season of 30 goals and 50 points.
It would be the closest the Golden Knights would get to a comeback, however. Vladimir Tarasenko would finish off a three-on-one to effectively start Vegas’ homestand with a deflating loss.
Mitch Marner would cut the deficit to two goals again from a nice feed by Dorofeyev, but a victory was not to be.
With the Anaheim Ducks’ shootout win over the Montreal Canadiens earlier in the day, the Vegas Golden Knights have now found themselves out of the top spot in the Pacific Division.
Now beginning to lose ground, the Golden Knights will have to regroup quickly on Sunday against the Edmonton Oilers.
“You got to win some 3-2, 2-1. You’re just going to have to at some point,” said Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy about his team’s challenging stretch.
“We’ll attack some things. We don’t play tomorrow, so we’re going to practice. We’re going to attack some things.”